Full Moon in the Winter Football (evening)

From Friday until Sunday night, January 12, the nearly full moon will shine inside the Winter Football asterism, also known as the Winter Hexagon and Winter Circle. The asterism is composed of the brightest stars in the constellations of Canis Major, Orion, Taurus, Auriga, Gemini, and Canis Minor – specifically Sirius, Rigel, Aldebaran, Capella, Castor & Pollux, and Procyon. Once Sirius has risen above the rooftops in the southeast around 7 p.m. local time, the huge pattern will straddle nearly 70 degrees of the southeastern sky. In late evening, the asterism will stand upright in the southern sky, with the Milky Way ascending vertically through it. The hexagon is visible during evening from mid-November to spring every year. Jupiter, which is brighter than any of the asterism’s stars, will be spending this month on the western rim of the football, between Aldebaran and Capella.