What to See in January's Night Sky

Night Sky viewing guide for January 2024 including Moon phases, conjunctions, meteor showers and Deep Space Objects to see.

The Quadrantid Meteor Shower is an above-average shower, with up to 40 meteors per hour at its peak which occurs on the night of the 3rd of January. It is thought to be produced by dust grains left behind by an extinct comet known as 2003 EH1, which was discovered in 2003. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Bootes but can appear anywhere in the sky.

Mercury at greatest western elongation on January 12th and will be 23.5 degrees from the Sun. Mercury will be at its highest point above the horizon in the morning sky, making this the best time to observe it. Just before sunrise, look for the planet low in the eastern sky.

The planetary conjunction with the narrowest visible distance will take place on January 27 at 15:48 GMT. Mercury will come within 0°12' of Mars. During this occurrence, the planets will be nearly as close as Jupiter and Saturn were during the Great Conjunction of 2020. Both planets will be viewable with the naked eye in the morning, shortly before sunrise. Mars and Mercury will be visible from the Northern Hemisphere, low above the south-eastern horizon in the constellation Sagittarius. From the Southern Hemisphere, the planets will appear slightly higher.

The Orion Nebula (M42) is well placed in the South East along with the Hyades and Pleiades star clusters. See if you can differentiate the colour difference between red/orange Betelgeuse and blue Rigel, Orion's left shoulder and right knee.

A short hop into neighbouring Auriga will bring you to the three exquisite open clusters - M36, M37 and M38 all of which can be spotted with binoculars and lie in the region between Beta Tauri and Delta Aurigae.

With dark skies, you should be able to spot the double cluster Perseus with the naked eye. It's another great target for small telescopes and consists of the clusters NGC 869 and NGC 884.

The Andromeda galaxy is a favourite of mine, directly overhead in December and slowly setting towards the west during January and into February. This large galaxy can be seen as a faint fuzzy blob with the naked eye under dark skies, but it's best to see through binoculars. Through a telescope, the Andromeda Galaxy looks quite diffuse. Use your lowest power; the full extent of the galaxy is huge - five times as large as the full moon. It is the most distant object you can see with your naked eyes being two million light years away.

In this table, the observation month represents the month in which the object reaches its highest point in the sky. It can also be viewed a few months before and after depending on your location. Direction is the compass direction in which the object is located, with Z meaning Zenith or overhead.

#	Image	Common Name	Constellation	Coords	Direction	Mag	Size (arcmin)	Type	Star Chart
M1 NGC 1952		The Crab Nebula	Taurus	05h 34.5m RA 22° 01m Dec	S/SW	8.40	4	Supernova Remnant	🔍︎
M35 NGC 2168		Shoe-Buckle Cluster	Gemini	06h 08.9m RA 24° 20m Dec	SE	5.30	28	Open Cluster	🔍︎
M36 NGC 1960		Pinwheel Cluster	Auriga	05h 36.1m RA 34° 08m Dec	SW	6.30	12	Open Cluster	🔍︎
M37 NGC 2099		Salt and Pepper Cluster	Auriga	05h 52.4m RA 32° 33m Dec	SW	6.20	24	Open Cluster	🔍︎
M38 NGC 1912		Starfish Cluster	Auriga	05h 28.7m RA 35° 50m Dec	SW	7.40	20	Open Cluster	🔍︎
M40		Winnecke 4	Ursa Major	12h 22.4m RA 58° 05m Dec	N	9.60	0.86	Double Star	🔍︎
M41 NGC 2287		Little Beehive Cluster	Canis Major	06h 47.0m RA -20° 44m Dec	S	4.50	38	Open Cluster	🔍︎
M42 NGC 1976		The Orion Nebula	Orion	05h 35.4m RA -05° 27m Dec	S	4.00	65x60	Diffuse Nebula	🔍︎
M43 NGC 1982		de Mairan's Nebula	Orion	05h 35.6m RA -05° 16m Dec	S	9.00	20x15	Diffuse Nebula	🔍︎
M44 NGC 2632		Praesepe	Cancer	08h 40.1m RA 19° 59m Dec	S	3.70	95	Open Cluster	🔍︎
M45		The Pleiades	Taurus	03h 47.0m RA 24° 07m Dec	SE	1.60	110	Open Cluster	🔍︎
M46 NGC 2437			Puppis	07h 41.8m RA -14° 49m Dec	S	6.10	27	Open Cluster	🔍︎
M47 NGC 2422			Puppis	07h 36.6m RA -14° 30m Dec	S	4.20	30	Open Cluster	🔍︎
M48 NGC 2548		Starfish Cluster	Hydra	08h 13.8m RA -05° 48m Dec	S	7.40	20	Open Cluster	🔍︎
M50 NGC 2323		Heart-Shaped Cluster	Monoceros	07h 03.2m RA -08° 20m Dec	S	5.90	16	Open Cluster	🔍︎
M51 NGC 5194		The Whirlpool Galaxy	Canes Venatici	13h 29.9m RA 47° 12m Dec	NE	8.40	11x7	Galaxy	🔍︎
M67 NGC 2682		Golden-Eye Cluster (Pac-Man Cluster)	Cancer	08h 50.4m RA 11° 49m Dec	S	6.10	30	Open Cluster	🔍︎
M78 NGC 2068		Casper the Friendly Ghost Nebula	Orion	05h 46.7m RA 00° 03m Dec	S	8.30	8x6	Diffuse Nebula	🔍︎
M79 NGC 1904			Lepus	05h 24.5m RA -24° 33m Dec	S	8.56	8.7	Globular Cluster	🔍︎
M93 C71 NGC 2447		Butterfly Cluster	Puppis	07h 44.6m RA -23° 52m Dec	S	5.80	22	Open Cluster	🔍︎
M98 NGC 4192			Coma Berenices	12h 13.8m RA 14° 54m Dec	SE	11.00	9.8*2.8	Galaxy	🔍︎
M99 NGC 4254		Coma Pinwheel Galaxy	Coma Berenices	12h 18.8m RA 14° 25m Dec	SE	10.40	5.4x4.7	Galaxy	🔍︎
M100 NGC 4321		Blowdryer Galaxy (Mirror Galaxy)	Coma Berenices	12h 22.9m RA 15° 49m Dec	SE	10.10	7.4x6.3	Galaxy	🔍︎