Over the next few nights, you can capture the moon through a hexagonal star formation high in the winter sky.
Six bright, easily recognizable stars in the winter sky form a beautifully shaped hexagon. Over the course of five nights, the moon will pass through the center of the hexagon or winter circle. The six stars that form its angles are part of the constellations Orion, Taurus, Auriga, Gemini, Canis Major and Canis Minor. You can see the moon “cross” the shape from January 23 to January, while the moon sits in the hexagon in the middle of the three nights.
The six stars of the first magnitude are the recognizable blue of Sirius, which sits at the bottom of the formation; Rigel, at the foot of Orion; bright Aldebaran; Capella, high in the air; Pollux, one of Gemini’s heads; and Procyon in Canis Minor, per Air & Telescope. This group is sometimes named with the star Castor, the other head within the constellation Gemini. Castor is not a star of the first magnitude, but is still very bright. You can also see the bright red star Betelgeuse in the middle of the hexagon, on Orion’s shoulder.
You’ll find the group relatively early in the evening, around 9:30 p.m. local time, according to Joe Rao at Space.com if you look south. They will be for a while. However, this is not a tight grouping, so they are spread over the air. EarthSky has a nice version of the place where the moon will appear in relation to these six stars on every night from January 23rd to 27th. You can also use an app like SkyView to track the stars if you are not sure where they are located.
Part of the fun to watch is watching the movement of celestial bodies against each other as the moon moves through the big hexagon night after night and moves to a full moon on January 27th.
This movement has occurred three times this winter, and, per Air and Telescope, will happen three more times after this week’s dance. On 19-24 February, 19-23 March and 15-19 April you will again be able to see how the moon crosses the winter hexagon. However, this does not mean that it will look the same every month. On top of that, seeing the moon move through the sky this week is a great way to understand the bright winter stars well if you are not yet familiar with them.