January 8
A Death and a Birth
Sun Position
The Sun lies in Capricornus, about 22.3° south of the celestial equator. In the Northern Hemisphere the days are still short but lengthening; in the Southern Hemisphere this is high summer with long, warm evenings.
Sky Highlight
The Gemini twins, Castor and Pollux, climb the eastern evening sky head-first, their cluster M35 nearby. Best from northern latitudes but visible from much of the south.
Deep Sky Object
Messier 35 and its faint neighbor NGC 2158, a pairing of a nearby bright cluster and a distant compact one in the same field. Northern Hemisphere favored.
Featured Star
Castor (α Gem), a white main-sequence pair in Gemini, 51.5 light-years away. Castor, the mortal twin, hiding five more stars behind one point of light.
Around This Date
- January 8, 1642Galileo Galilei died, having spent his last years under house arrest for his astronomy.
- January 8, 1942Stephen Hawking was born, exactly three centuries after Galileo's death.
The sky keeps its accounts across centuries.