Watch for Venus, Antares and the moon before sunup January 9, 10 and 11 by Deborah Byrd via TONIGHT
- Jan 08 – Jan 14
- 08Planetary trio – Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury – low in west at dusk
- 12See the Unicorn on dark January nights
- 13Tonight is New Year’s Eve in the Julian calendar
- 14Young moon and Mercury in mid-January
- 17Look for Cassiopeia and the Big Dipper
- 19Moon, Mars, Uranus January 19, 20, 21
- 21Orion the Hunter is easy to spot
On the mornings of January 9, 10 and 11, 2021, you can watch as the waning crescent moon sweeps past a bright star – Antares in the constellation Scorpius – and an even brighter planet, Venus. Look east before the sun comes up. You can’t miss them if your sky is clear.https://7f10bed39a779fa8b93e862cc65e61c2.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html
Antares is a red star and represents the Scorpion’s Heart. We in the Northern Hemisphere consider it a summer star, because it’s visible on summer evenings. But it’s up before the sun on cold northern winter mornings. Skywatchers in the Southern Hemisphere can see this star even better than we in the north. From there, it make a grand high arc across the sky. For a specific view of Antares, the moon and Venus on these January mornings, from your location on the globe, try Stellarium.
If you contrast the star Antares with the planet Venus, you’ll find that Antares twinkles fiercely, while Venus shines more steadily. But Venus might be twinkling a bit now, too, because it’s getting so low in the sky before the sun comes up. Venus is much closer to the sun on our sky’s dome than it was a few months ago. And it’s not going to get any higher in the predawn sky between now and sometime in February, when it’ll disappear into the sun’s glare.