January 2nd While scanning M33 for novae (none seen) I saw something that appeared to be moving. Interrogating the minor planet centre showed it to be an asteroid: The following objects, brighter than V = 20.0, were found in the 15.0-arcminute region around R.A. = 01 35 25, Decl. = +30 23 17 on 2017 01 02.82 UT: Object designation (206509) 2003 UX124 RA 01 35 24.6 DEC +30 23 24 Mag 19.4 January 9th Another asteroid found crossing the M31 field. Identified as (101742) 1999 FO7 From the Minor Planet Centre: The following objects, brighter than V = 20.0, were found in the 15.0-arcminute region around R.A. = 00 42 26.09, Decl. = +41 19 15.0 (J2000.0) on 2017 01 09.75 UT: Object designation (101742) 1999 FO7 RA = 00 42 24.3 Dec =+41 19 16 magnitude =17.5 January 17th The weather in the UK is so poor for astronomy that I finally got round to trying a remote telescope. This is a single 300 second exposure of the Centaurus A galaxy. This was taken with a telescope at the Siding Spring observatory in Australia. Centaurus A is always below the horizon from the UK. I used the iTelescope service. I also tried a few images of M31 from telescope7 at the Nerpio site in Spain. I think focus was a bit off because images using a 43cm Planewave CDK telescope were not as sharp as my own images with the 20cm reflector. A nova in M31 discovered by Kamil Hornoch on January 18th showed up so this is a prediscovery image: January 22nd Venus was spectacularly bright in the twilight sky. The image does not do it justice: January 28th Nova M31 2017-01c has brightened considerably: