This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 2026 Jan 24 – Jan 31

The most inconspicuous of the zodiac constellations is faint Cancer the Crab, which is nestled between Gemini and Leo. In mythology, the crab was sent by the goddess queen Hera to distract Hercules while he was battling the Hydra. The crab was no match for the strongman’s stomp. Ancient Egyptians saw it as their sacred dung beetle, the scarab. In the first millennium BCE the Sun was in Cancer at the summer solstice, the time when it halts its northward motion and slowly starts heading south. This back and forth motion of the rising and setting Sun on the horizon was perhaps reminiscent of a crab sidling on a beach. The summer Sun is now situated in Taurus near the constellation border with Gemini.

Cancer is recognized by a trapezoid of dim naked eye stars as the crab’s body, with a couple of other stars representing the claws. The four stars were also seen as a manger flanked by a pair of donkeys, Asellus Borealis and Asellus Australis. On a clear dark night we can see a hazy patch of hay within the manger, and binoculars reveal it as a beautiful star cluster called the Beehive, Praesepe or M44. Being near the ecliptic, the planets often pass through or near this cluster, masquerading as a bright guest star. The Beehive was once used to forecast storms, for if it could not be seen it was hidden by light clouds at the front of a weather system. Binoculars can reveal another star cluster, number 67 on the Messier list of fuzzy non-comets, less than a fist-width south of M44.

This Week in the Solar System

Saturday’s sunrise in Moncton is at 7:50 and sunset will occur at 5:12, giving 9 hours, 22 minutes of daylight (7:52 and 5:20 in Saint John). Next Saturday the Sun will rise at 7:42 and set at 5:22, giving 9 hours, 40 minutes of daylight (7:45 and 5:30 in Saint John).

The Moon is at first quarter on Monday, close to the Pleiades Tuesday and above Jupiter next Friday. Saturn is in the southwest after evening twilight this weekend, setting before 10 pm. Jupiter is at about the same altitude in the east at that time among the stars of Gemini. On Monday at 9:04 pm telescope users might see Jupiter’s moon Callisto reappear from transiting the planet at the same time that its shadow begins a transit on the other side, with the Red Spot midway across the planet. Venus, Mars and Mercury are out of sight on the far side if the Sun.
Tune in to the Sunday Night Astronomy Show at 8 pm on the YouTube channel and Facebook page of Astronomy by the Bay.

Questions? Contact Curt Nason at nasonc@nbnet.nb.ca.