A Brightening Comet, A Brilliant Venus And Mars In Taurus: The Night Sky This Week

Each Monday I pick out the northern hemisphere’s celestial highlights (mid-northern latitudes) for the week ahead, but be sure to check my main feed for more in-depth articles on stargazing, astronomy, eclipses and more.

What To See In The Night Sky This Week: January 9-15, 2023

If you haven’t already noticed, this New Year has a new “Evening Star.” Getting brighter and higher in the post-sunset western sky, the planet Venus—the brightest object in the sky beside the Sun and Moon—is becoming impossible to ignore. Once you’ve seen Venus, swivel to the east and you’ll see the bright stars of Orion hanging below a bright, reddish Mars. Look south and you’ll see Jupiter.

January is a stunning month to go stargazing in the northern hemisphere—if you can stand the cold.

Here’s what else to see in the night sky this week:

Monday, January 9, 2023: Moon near Regulus

Wait a few hours after sunset and look to the east with naked eyes you’ll easily see the 91%-lit waning gibbous Moon close to Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation of Leo “the Lion.”

Tuesday, January 10, 2023: Moon near Regulus

Here’s another chance to see the Moon, now 84%-lit, close to Regulus as it appears on the eastern horizon a few hours after sunset.

Wednesday, January 11, 2023: Mars in Taurus

Look high in the south anytime after dark and you’ll see reddish Mars forming a triangle with another reddish object and a bright yet fuzzy patch. It’s Aldebaran—the bright red “eye of the bull” in Taurus, to the lower-left—and the sparkling Pleiades open cluster of blue stars, to the lower-right.

Remember 2020’s Comet NEOWISE? 2023 could see a rival. Discovered in 2022, Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) will likely brighten as it gets closer to its perihelion—its closest point to the sun—on January 12, 2023, though likely reaching its brightest for Earthlings on February 1, 2023—its closest approach to Earth as it swings out of the solar system. From the northern hemisphere the comet is now in the morning sky, but as it moves northwest during January it will become an all-night object.

MORE FROM FORBESWhen And Where To See The New ‘Comet Of The Year’ At Its BestBy Jamie Carter

Saturday, January 14, 2023: Moon near Spica

Today the 47%-lit Moon—now rising in the early hours and visible until dawn—will be less than 4º from Spica, the brightest star in the constellation of Virgo. One of the 15 brightest stars in the entire sky, Spica is a blue giant star about 250 light-years distant.

Sunday, January 15, 2023: Last Quarter Moon

Our natural satellite will today appear half-lit and be at Last Quarter. Over the next week it will shrink to a crescent Moon and then to an invisible New Moon as it moves roughly between Earth and Sun and gets lost in the latter’s glare.

Constellation of the week: Taurus

This constellation—currently being visited by Mars—is always visible in the winter sky and is located just to the upper-right of Orion in early evening (look southeast). Taurus is represented by a bull and is easily identifiable by the bright orange star Aldebaran, which marks the bull’s eye. Taurus also contains the Pleiades, a group of seven bright stars that form a small open cluster.

Object of the week: the Pleiades

The Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters and this week welcoming Mars to its patch of sky, is an open cluster of stars about 444 light-years from Earth in Taurus. Visible to the naked eye as a small group of bright stars, the Pleiades contains the bright stars Alcyone, Atlas, Electra, Maia, Merope, Taygeta and Pleione. They’re around 100 million years old—virtual newborns, cosmically speaking—and are surrounded by a cloud of gas and dust that is illuminated by the radiation from the stars. That’s what makes them so beautiful because if you look at the Pleiades, you see stars, but if you look slightly to one side, you see immense brightness.

Times and dates given apply to mid-northern latitudes. For the most accurate location-specific information consult online planetariums like Stellarium and The Sky Live. Check planet-rise/planet-set, sunrise/sunset and moonrise/moonset times for where you are.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.