Celestial Seasonings – January 2022

By Muriel Bristol | December 30, 2022

Happy New Year one and all! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season in 2021. This month brings a super meteor shower as well as a super moon. Our Sun will be as close to the Earth as it ever gets.

Providing you have the proper equipment, check out the recommended YouTube videos for more in-depth events.

January 3. The Quadrantid meteor shower from Bootes, the Constellation will be present in this evening’s sky. This is the major shower of this month and there will be a black moon and the showers will be prolific rendering this the finest time of this month for sky watching.

January 4. Our planet makes a complete orbit in one year. The orbit is not purely circular but slightly ovular. Once in every orbit the Earth makes its closest approach to the Sun. This year, that close approach will occur today and the Sun may look bigger than usual.

January 5. The Moon and Jupiter will ascend to the right as well as rise together in this evening’s sky.

January 7. Mercury will be as far away from the Sun, but might not be visible with the naked eye.

January 9. Mercury will be half visible, but again, hard to see without an amplification tool. The Moon will be at first quarter today.

January 10. Mercury will be at its highest point in tonight’s sky.

January 17. The full Wolf super moon will display tonight. It was named the Wolf moon because wolves were thought to cry more in January than at any other point in time.

January 19. The y-Ursae Minorid meteor shower from the Constellation Ursa Minor will put on a show this evening.

January 25. This will show the final quarter of the full Wolf super moon.

January 29. The Moon and Mars will travel with one another as well as ascend to the right.

References:

Ford, D.F. (n.d.). 2021. Retrieved from in-the-sky.org

Now Next. (2021, December 17). January 2022 Astronomical Events. Retrieved from youtu.be/U2XoY6bLwgU

Secrets of Space. (2021, December 28). Top Astronomy Events in January 2022. Retrieved from youtu.be/0Cs8Neu5sy8

Wikipedia. (2021, December 21). Quadrantids. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrantids