9 Must-See Astronomical Events in the Night Sky in January (2022)
January 3: The Quadrantids meteor shower reaches its maximum
Photo credit: thepixeltrail, Flickr
The first astronomical event of the year is the Quadrant Meteor Shower, which will peak on January 3. That night you can find a spot in the northern night sky that radiates up to 80 meteors per hour around that point. Note, however, that while the quadrant meteor shower is active, it can only be seen for a few hours at its peak.
The author suggests that instead of deliberately going to the northern night sky to look for the meteor shower, I would scan the night sky of the north to try to find these faint meteors.
January 4 - Perihelion
The next astronomical event in 2022 is perihelion, and while you won't be able to see it happening, you'll experience it unknowingly. On January 4, the Earth will move to its closest position to the Sun.
On that day, the Earth will reach the closest point to the Sun in orbit, about 0.98 Earth's average daily distance (compared to July's aphelion distance of 1.02 Earth's average daily distance), indicating that the Earth's orbit is not a perfect circle, but an elliptical.
January 5: Jupiter Gingetsu
Photo credit: Gleen Beltz, Flickr
Unlike the last months of 2021, there is only one important planetary conjunction worth mentioning in January 2022, and that is jupiter on the night of January 5. The distance between Jupiter and the Moon is about 4°27' – if you hold your index, middle, and ring fingers together and straighten your arms against them, they are roughly on either side of your three fingers together. You can find the beautiful winding moon and bright Jupiter in the southwestern sky of Aquarius.
(And saturn's conjunction will occur during the day, so we don't need to explore it.) ）
10 January: C/2019 L3 (ATLAS) arrives at perihelion
Now that you know what a "perihelion" is, you might be able to guess what the night sky will witness this January: Comet C/2019 L3 (ATLAS) – an easy-to-say name – will reach its closest location to the Sun on its journey through the solar system on January 10. (Comet C/2019 L3 (ATLAS) doesn't actually orbit the sun — it's the first time it's skimmed the sun!) ）
While you'll have to use a telescope to see C/2019 L3 (ATLAS), the whole month of January is actually a great opportunity to observe the comet. It hung high in the southern sky throughout January, but its apparent magnitude was weak, at just 9.7.
January 11: Mercury reaches its highest level in the evening
Photo credit: sagesolar, Flickr
If you've been following my site for a while, you'll probably know that "Seeing Mercury with the Naked Eye" is on my astronomical bucket list. I have one more chance, and so do you! On January 11 the asteroid will travel 13° above the southwest horizon – its night highest position.
Unlike Mercury's previous periods of rise and fall in the morning and evening, Saturn will be very close to Mercury at this particular evening peak, and they are only a few degrees apart, making Saturn the perfect guide to finding Mercury "stars". Hopefully, the day will be clear and I can go out and see the bright little Mercury!
January 13-7 asteroid Rainbow God hedge
"Hedging" describes a celestial phenomenon in which the Sun is on one side of the Earth and the celestial body is on the other side of the Earth, in exact opposite direction to the Sun and somewhat resembles a "Sun-Earth-Celestial Body" sandwich in space. During hedging, because the relevant objects are illuminated by the sun behind us, it is a good opportunity to study other celestial bodies in the solar system.
On the evening of January 13, asteroid 7 will be in a hedge position for the Sun. Asteroid 7 is the seventh object discovered in the main asteroid belt and the fourth brightest in this region of the Solar System.
You'll need a telescope to see the distant Rainbow God, but if you wait until midnight and use the app to find a perfectly dark enough environment to observe, you can also see the planet in the constellation Gemini.
On January 18, Comet Koval 2 reached its brightest point
As the introduction says, January is a month when comets are often encountered – but thankfully it doesn't happen, as in the movie Don't Look Up, where the comet hits Earth.
On Jan. 18, Comet Koval 2 will reach its maximum brightness, when it is only 0.65 astronomical units from Earth. But don't worry, it's a very distant distance from a planetary impact point of view.
The only thing you need to do is use a telescope to observe Comet Koval 2 wandering in the constellation Cetus.
January 19: The Gamma Meteor Shower in ursa Minor reaches its maximum
Photo credit: Mike Lewinski, Flickr
If a full moon or cloudy day bothers you with your observations of the Vitex meteor shower earlier this month, you can try to see the less impressive Ursa Minor gamma meteor shower. This meteor shower radiates roughly from the constellation Ursa Minor, close to the bright North Star.
This meteor shower will occur from January 15 to 25, 2022, and is expected to peak on the evening of January 19. On the evening of January 19, you may see up to 3 meteors per hour. Obviously, that's not a lot; and unfortunately, the moon that just passed its full phase a few days ago will be illuminated—I have to tell you about it—and if the night sky is clear in your place, the bright moon may interfere with your observation of meteor showers, but it's not necessarily an insomnia night.
20 January: Comet 19P/Broly reached its brightest point
Another comet! Comet 19P/Broly is brightest on January 20, when it is about 1.23 AU from Earth. In fact, the most prominent time for this comet is an hour after sunset, not in the middle of the night.
To see Comet 19P/Broly, you'll need to use a telescope and look at Cetus – just like You would look at Comet 104P/Covar.
That's the end of the list. It's much shorter than the list of Astronomical Events in the Night Sky in December that I've made, but it's a good start to 2022 after all — especially for astronomers who have always wanted to see Mercury and like to look for comets. Do you have questions about the astronomical events in the January night sky above? Talk to us in the comments section!
BY：NIGHT SKY GUIDE
FY：Astronomical volunteer team
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