What's up for January 2017? Here's when, where to look up in the night sky this month (Watch video)

Image credit: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/YouTube

New Delhi: NASA has released a video that highlights various astronomical events taking place in the month of January, 2017.

The new year started with a beautiful view of the moon, Venus and Mars on January 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

“Most meteor showers radiate from recognizable constellations like Leo’s Leonids, Gemini’s Geminids and Orion’s Orionids. But the Quadrantids are meteors that appear to radiate from the location of the former Quadrans Muralis constellation. In the early 1920s the International Astronomical Union divided up the sky into official constellations. 88 constellations remained, but over 30 historical constellations didn’t make the cut. The Quadrans Muralis area of the sky is within the boundaries of the official constellation Boötes. The Quadrantids peak lasts for just a few hours,”

Jane Houston Jones from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in the video.

Using telescopes and binoculars, it said that two other notable objects are visible this month.

Comet 45P is visible just after sunset at the beginning of the month very low in the southwestern sky, and will be visible just before sunrise by month’s end.

Vesta, the brightest of all the asteroids, is visible all month long, reaching opposition and its peak of brightness on January 17th. Use Gemini’s twin stars Castor and Pollux to find Vesta.

To catch up on solar system missions and all of NASA’s missions, log on to www.nasa.gov.