And it is the first week of New Year. Foxes are mating and owls are building nests. Tufted titmice, sometimes the first birds to sing their mating calls, may be calling in your yard.
And its full moon week with the first full moon of 2023. The Crow Moon will be waxing gibbous throughout this almanac period, turning totally round in the evening of Three Kings Day, January 6. Rising in the afternoon and setting in the early morning, this moon will be shining overhead throughout the night for walks outside.
This is also the week of Perihelion, the point at which the Earth and the Sun are closest to one another. Perihelion occurs on January 4 at 11:17 a.m., at which point the Earth will be 91,403,034 miles from the Sun.
Besides all of that, January’s shooting stars, the Quadrantids, appear this week most heavily on January 3 and 4, at the rate of about 35 per hour. Look for them after midnight in the eastern sky.
There is even more to see when you look for shooting stars. The night sky is a classic winter sky. In Deep Winter’s January, Orion’s giant figure fills the south at 11:00 p.m. To his right, the red eye of Taurus (the star Aldebaran) leads the way.
This is Bill Felker with Poor Will’s Almanack. I’ll be back again next week with notes for the second full week of Deep Winter.
In the meantime, mating foxes the full Crow Moon and Aphelion and the Quadrantid Meteors and Orion in the night create a highwater mark of the Earth's relation to the Sun. Even if you can't see them, imagine yourself riding those makers across the cosmos into the new year.
