Rishi Shah

As darkness descend on earth, the night skies of this month would enthrall sky-watchers with spectacular stars, conjuring constellations and pleasant planets. The fleet-footed planet Mercury would reach its greatest eastern elongation from the Sun on 24 January. It could be glimpsed tersely after nightfall in western sky after middle of month, as it would be cavorting with stars twinkling in western part of constellation Sagittarius (archer).
Planet Venus could be astounded shortly in southeastern sky before daybreak. It would be mingling with the stars inhabiting the eastern section of Sagittarius. It would fade out of view towards the end of month. The ruddy planet Mars along with far-flung planets Uranus and Neptune accompanying on its left and right side could be marveled patiently after sundown in southeastern sky till almost midnight above southwestern horizon. Mars would be marching across the starry sky belonging mainly to the southern segment of the V-shaped constellation Pisces (fishes).

Uranus Slides Away
The greenish planet Uranus would be sliding slowly from the southern sparse side of constellation Aries (ram) in eastern sky and sink towards southwestern horizon.
The bluish Neptune could be noticed navigating through the eastern edge of the constellation Aquarius (water bearer) in southwestern sky at evening and eventually glide towards the western horizon before midnight.
The giant gas planet, Jupiter, could be admired shortly after sunset in western sky in constellation Capricornus (sea goat). Perceiving it after mid-month would be difficult. Ringed planet Saturn would be not visible this month due to its proximity to the Sun. It would be sailing through Capricornus. Dwarf planet Pluto could be noticed to the west of Jupiter and Saturn. Discerning it among the stars of Sagittarius would be painstaking.
The Quadrantids meteor shower with up to forty meteors per hour at its peak could be enjoyed from the night of the 02 till the morning of 03 January 2021. The faint Quadrantids cannot be relished often as other prolific meteor showers, because its uttermost intensity would be exceedingly sharp lasting only for hours. This first major meteor shower of 2021 could be observed best during the wee hours between 02 AM and early dawn.
The bright waning gibbous moon could wash away the dim meteors this year, even though avid sky-gazers could catch a few fulgent ones after midnight. The shower would run annually from 01 to 05 January. The Quadrantids would allegedly exude from the radiant that would stand at the northern tip of comely elongated triangle-depicting constellation Bootes (herdsman) in the vicinity of circumpolar constellation Ursa Major (big dipper or big bear).
It would lie between the end of the handle of the big dipper and the quadrilateral-resembling star asterism describing the head of constellation Draco (dragon). Amazing red giant star Arcturus (Swati) would be sparkling in Bootes. It would be basically 36.7 light-years away. Draco’s enigmatic star Thuban had served as the northern pole star from 3942 until 1793 BC. Due to precession (wobbling motion of earth), it would become the pole star again in around 21000 AD.
It would be fairly 309 light-years away. This meteor shower has retained the traditional moniker Quadrantids of now obsolete constellation Quadrans Muralis (mural quadrant). Quadrantis has been probably produced by dusty debris left behind by presumably an extinct asteroid labeled 2003 EH1 with orbital period of paltry 5.52 years, which the Dutch-English astronomer Peter Jenniskens had tentatively identified in 2003 as the progenitor of the Quadrantids. It has been postulated that 2003 EH1 could have been related to the comet C/1490Y1, which had been recorded by Chinese, Japanese and Korean astronomers whopping five hundred years ago.
New Moon
The new moon would befall on 13 January, while the full moon popularly claimed as wolf moon would mesmerize moon-lovers on 28 January, because the hungry wolf packs would be howling outside the camps during this time of the year. Its other sobriquet would be the old moon or the moon after Yule.
Earth would arrive at its upcoming closest place to the Sun on 02 January 2021 at circa 147.093 million kilometers from Sun. Furthermore, it would be farthest away at aphelion from Sun on 06 July 2021 at approximately 152.101 million kilometers, when we would be experiencing summer in Northern Hemisphere.
Earth would be roughly five million kilometers closer to Sun in January when it would be winter in the Northern Hemisphere than it would be in July. Earth’s circuit around Sun would look like ellipse-shaped hat on which someone had sat down and squashed. The words would derive from ancient Greek, in which helios would mean Sun, apo would express far and peri would evince to be close.
Paradoxically earth would be most proximate during the winter month but most distant from the Sun during the hot summer month. So, it would not be the distance from the Sun that would be the critical factor to trigger seasons, but the earth’s axis that has leaned at an angle of merely 23.5 degrees would be the prime reason for giving rise to seasons on earth. As the earth would revolve around the Sun on a tilt, our planet would obtain more or less amounts of the Sun’s direct rays at different times of the year. The moon would make the most imminent approach to earth at perigee and drift to the outmost post from earth at apogee.
After completing its primary mission successfully China's Chang'e-5 orbiter would depart on a new bold venture for exploring the unique first earth-Sun Lagrange point L1, which would lie between earth and the Sun at about 1.6 million kilometers from earth. It has been named after renowned Italian-French mathematician and astronomer Giuseppe Luigi Lagrange (1736 - 1813).
In the neighborhood of every two co-orbiting heavenly body-system, exclusively five orbital points would exist, where the gravitational forces of the two objects would be almost equal and cancel out each other’s influence. It would be easy for observatory satellites to reside comfortably in these areas with minimum effects from these two bodies. A Lagrange point would be that location in space where the combined gravitational forces of large embodiment, as earth and the Sun or earth and the moon, would equal the centrifugal force felt by a much smaller third body.

Eerie Equilibrium
The interaction of these forces would create eerie equilibrium notch where spacecrafts could be parked safely for conducting observations. These cusps in space could be used by space vehicles to reduce fuel consumption for remaining in position. In very simple terms a rotating entity would feel an inward centripetal force to constrain it to move in a circular path.
It would also sense an apparent centrifugal tug pulling it away and attempting literally to fly it off on a tangent. Last December, the craft had executed excellently its final task, when it had dropped off the capsule with precious rocky sediments from lunar surface on earth. The Chinese expert team had recovered the valuable cargo that had landed in Inner Mongolia.
Similarly in last December, after dramatically delivering samples of rocky particles from asteroid Ryugu to earth JAXA’s Hayabusa-2 spacecraft has been dispatched on eleven year-journey to study asteroid 1998KY26. The capsule with invaluable rocks had been retrieved by Japanese professionals from thinly populated desert in the Australian Outback.
Asteroids would rush around the Sun but are minuter than planets. It is assumed that the material from asteroid could contain data from ostensibly 4.6 billion years ago and could help explain the evolution of the Solar System and how perhaps water and organic matter had seeded life on earth. Japan's research in asteroids could convincingly contribute to finding solutions for protecting earth from collision with big menacing meteorites and rogue asteroids. 1998 KY26 has been classified as spherical sub-kilometer near-Earth asteroid of the Apollo group. It would measure meager thirty meters in diameter with rotational period of only 10.7 minutes. It had been detected in 1998 by the Space-watch survey at Kitt Peak National Observatory, Arizona USA during its six days pass-by earth from eight hundred thousand kilometers.
(Shah writes on astronomy)