How are objects in the heavens named? According to Caroline Lupfer of the Smithsonian Institution much depends on the nature of the body to be named. Of the more than 5,000 known asteroids or minor planets, 3,957 had names by the end of 1991 ranging from the serious to the fanciful. The first to be discovered, Ceres in 1801, was named after the Roman goddess of the harvest while a more recent addition goes by the dual titles of 1971 QX1 or Mr. Spock.

Comets usually bear the name of their discoverer as comet Swift-Tuttle although the most famous of all, comet Halley, was known long before Edmund Halley. He, of course, was immortalized for determining a means of predicting the return of his, and other, periodic comets. A new nomenclature problem has arisen in recent years when spacecraft have mapped the topography of planets such as Venus. Currently names are being sought for the thousands of mountains, plains, craters, and volcanic basins that dot Venus.

In 1979, the International Astronomical Union decided that only feminine names will be used on Venus with larger features being reserved for women important in history. Other rules instituted by the IAU are that the names of politicians, philosophers, and military figures of the last 200 years are excluded as are figures from still-practiced religions.

FOCUS ON THE PLANETS

To compensate for the cold, the clear skies of January offer a bonanza for planet watchers with Venus again ruling the evening sky and Mars putting on its best exhibition in two years.

VENUS is brilliant in the southwest at sunset where it remains in view until shortly before dawn.

MARS, at its brightest and most prominent since 1990, is low in the northeast where it remains all night. The “red planet” is near the full moon on Jan. 7 when it is in opposition or opposite the sun as seen from Earth.

SATURN starts the month to the lower-right of Venus but vanishes into twilight by month’s end.

JUPITER rises after midnight and moves into the evening sky as the month draws to a close. On the night of Jan. 13, you can see Jupiter rise with the moon in the east around midnight.

MERCURY is lost in the sun’s glare during January.

URANUS and NEPTUNE are close together and low on the southeastern horizon where they may be detected with a telescope just before dawn.

FOCUS ON A CONSTELLATION

Even though Mars is at its brightest in two years, it is still rivaled by Sirius in the constellation of Canis Major. By mid-evening, Mars is well up on the northeastern horizon while Sirius is in the southeast to the planet’s lower right. The “Great Dog” is identified in mythology as one of the hunting pack of Diana, goddess of the hunt, shown in pursuit of Lepus the Hare but the most interesting feature is brilliant Sirius, the “Dog Star.”

Sirius was an object of worship in ancient Egypt around 3000 B.C. as its appearance in June always presaged the beginning of the annual flooding of the Nile that enriched the soil of the Nile Valley. Besides being the brightest star in the sky, Sirius is of interest in that it is part of a binary system. The other half, called the “Pup,” is a massive white dwarf that remained hidden until 1862. The two orbit each other every 50 years and are predicted to have their closest approach to each other in 1993. Coincidentally, Sirius and the sun are closest to each other in the hottest part of the summer. In the Middle Ages it was thought that Sirius enhanced the heat of the sun and the extreme heat of summer became known as the Dog Days.

JANUARY EVENTS

1. Sunrise, 7:13 a.m.; sunset, 4:05 p.m.

2. Mars is closest to Earth tonight and will appear at its largest for this apparition.

3. Earth at perihelion, or closest approach to the sun, for the year.

4. The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks around this date. A good shower, averaging between 40 to 150 per hour of bluish meteors often with a long tail.

7. Full moon, 8:37 a.m. The full moon of January is called the old Moon or the moon after Yule. Look for Mars in close proximity to the full moon tonight.

12. Look for Venus high in the southwest tonight with Saturn to its lower right.

14. Last quarter moon, 11:01 p.m. The bright “star” near the moon tonight is Jupiter.

22. New moon, 1:27 p.m. The moon is in a direct line of sight between us and the sun and cannot be seen.

26. Look to the southwest this evening for the crescent moon just to the upper right of brilliant Venus.

30. First quarter moon, 6:20 p.m.

31. Sunrise, 6:56 a.m.; sunset, 4:42 p.m. January is the month to observe the Milky Way as it extends overhead from the southeast to the northwest.

Clair Wood is a science instructor at Eastern Maine Technical College and the NEWS science columnist.