January 2016 begins with force in astronomical matters. Just start the year, the 1 to January 5 luvia l can see the Quadrantids meteor. The best forecasts spoke of 120 meteors per hour and although the day for the best observation was Sunday the 3rd, we are still in time to “hunt” some, since their meteors are slow and very showy, with more than visible contrails and they hover speeds of 41 kilometers / second.
The next notable event of the month is Comet Catalina or C / 2013 US10 . This two-tailed comet from the Oort cloud will be visible simply with binoculars, although if we have a telescope at hand the observation can be more than perfect. This particular comet will delight us with its passage thanks to a “gravitational push” that turns it into a kind of space wanderer whose trajectory indicates that in the middle of this month and from midnight to dawn, we will have the perfect opportunity to contemplate it.
Between January 14 and 17 the comet will pass through two impressive galaxies: M51, the Whirlpool or Whirlpool galaxy, and M101, a fainter spiral galaxy. Since Catalina (discovered in 2013) has a hyperbolic orbit, it will only make its way to the Sun once; later, it will leave the solar system.
Another of the notable events in January will be the possibility of contemplating the constellation of Orion in an unbeatable way. Winter is the best time of year to contemplate it, but in this month, even from the city, you will be able to see without the need for a telescope, the different colors that the stars of this fantastic constellation have, also called “The Cathedral of Heaven” due to its different temperature.
