Mercury starts the year in the evening sky up to January 20, between March 31 and May 18 and again between July 14 and September 20 and lastly from November 5 on into 2010. It is a morning object from January 20 to March 31, also from May 18 to July 14 and from September 20 to November 5.

The best evening apparition for southern hemisphere observers is, as usual, in the August and September period. In 2009 Mercury will set about two and a half hours after the Sun in late August. There will also be a conjunction with Saturn at the time.

The best morning apparition will be in February and March with Mercury rising about two hours and 10 minutes before the Sun. The next morning apparition will be nearly as favourable, with Mercury rising just over 2 hours before the Sun on June 13. 45 minutes before sunrise, when the planet should be easily visible, Mercury will be slightly higher in the sky in February than in June. In February there will also be a conjunction with Jupiter, followed by ones Mars and then Neptune.

For northern hemisphere observers the best evening apparition is in late April and the best morning apparition is early in October.

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Venus is in the evening sky until it is at inferior conjunction on March 27. After that it will be a morning object for the rest of 2009.

For about 5 weeks before the March conjunction, Venus will set less than an hour after the Sun and be very low in the evening twilight. In the morning sky the planet will move up from the Sun more rapidly, by April 10 it will rise about 90 minutes earlier and be easily observable before sunrise. By mid June Venus will rise nearly 4 hours before the Sun and be about 24° up an hour before sunrise. After June it will start rising later with respect to sunrise. By early October only 40 minutes before the Sun, and less for the rest of the year leading up to the next superior conjunction, 2010 January 11.

Venus is in conjunction with Uranus on January 22, Mars on June 21 and Saturn on October 13. This last will only be visible low in strong twilight in the morning sky.

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Mars is a morning object throughout 2009, having been at conjunction with the Sun 2008 December 5. At first it will rise only shortly before the Sun and be difficult to observe. By the morning of February 18 when it is in conjunction with Jupiter, Mars will rise about 100 minutes before the Sun. The close proximity of Jupiter will make it reasonably easy to find some time before sunrise. For the first 7 months or so after conjunction, the time Mars rises will change very little, rather after 4am NZST (5am NZDT) for most places in New Zealand, although it will get considerably earlier compared to sunrise. Then Mars will start rising earlier in the night, advancing to about 11.30pm NZDT by the end of the year

For the first half of the year, Mars will be a first magnitude object, its brightness only changing slightly. During the second half of 2009 it will brighten a little more rapidly, reaching -0.7 by December 31.

Among the stars Mars will pass quite close to during 2009 is Aldebaran in Taurus. The two will be about 5° apart towards the end of July. Star and planet will have a similar magnitude and be a similar orange colour. A month later Mars will be about 16° from Betelgeuse in Orion again with a similar colour, but this time the star will be half a magnitude brighter.

Mars has conjunctions with all the major planets, except Saturn, during 2009, several of them with minimum separations about half a degree.

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Jupiter starts 2009 in the constellation Sagittarius, but crosses into Capricornus on January 4 where it remains for the rest of the year. It is in conjunction with the Sun on January 24, making it a difficult evening object before then. After conjunction Jupiter moves into the morning sky. By mid February when it is close to Mars it will rise about 90 minutes before the Sun.

By early June Jupiter will be rising about 2 hours before midnight and so be visible in the late evening sky. It will rise progressively earlier and become visible throughout the evening after opposition on August 14. By the end of the year, Jupiter will set before midnight so become an early evening object readily observable for only a short period after sunset.

From late April to early August, Jupiter will be less than 3° from Neptune, so acting as a marker for the faint planet. They close up again during December.

Compared to the Earth, Jupiter's equator is tilted at a much smaller angle to its orbit, just over 3°. For the past few years the north pole of Jupiter has been titled away from, the Sun, and the south pole tilted towards it , so that it has been "summer" in the southern hemisphere. On June 22 this year Jupiter's equator will be edge on to the Sun, that is there will be an equinox equivalent to the March one on Earth.

This will make very little difference to the appearance of Jupiter as we see it. But Jupiter's large, Galilean satellites orbit the planet very close to the plane of the equator. Whilst the equator is nearly edge on to the Sun and the Earth, there will be a series of mutual events of the satellites. These events come in two types, occultations when one satellite will move in front, or occult, another. Secondly eclipses occur when one satellite move through the shadow of another. Visually occultations will be more interesting as a pair of satellites will be seen to merge and then separate again over the course of a number of minutes. Most of the eclipses are partial, with only a small change in the brightness of the eclipsed satellite, not generally enough to be appreciated by eye. There are one or two deep eclipses when a satellite will be completely eclipsed so disappear from view for a few minutes. Predictions of these event will be posted on the RASNZ web site.

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Saturn will rise shortly after midnight in New Zealand at the beginning of 2009. By early February it will be visible in the northeast by late evening. Saturn is at opposition on March 18 when it will rise close to the time of sunset. by April it will be visible throughout the evening.

The planet will be at a stationary point in Leo on 2009 January 1 at the beginning of its retrograde loop. Its westerly motion will continue until May 17 when the planet is again stationary. Early in September Saturn will have advanced into Virgo, but by then it will be too low in the evening twilight for observation. Following conjunction on September 17 Saturn will move into the morning sky, rising 40 minutes before the Sun in mid October. It will then be close to Venus, with the two just over half a degree apart on the morning of October 14. Saturn will remain a morning object in Virgo for the rest of 2009.

Like Jupiter, Saturn's equator will also be edge on to the Sun during 2009. More significantly for observing the planet, this means the ring system will also be edge on to the Sun. This only occurs twice in the 30 year orbit of Saturn round the Sun. Unfortunately in 2009 this will occur on August 10, by which time Saturn will be setting fairly early in the evening. The Earth will pass though Saturn's ring-plane on September 4, less than a fortnight before conjunction, by which time the planet will set less than an hour after the Sun.

Between August 10 and September 4 the Sun will be illuminating the face of the rings turned away from the Earth. As a result they may be invisible as seen from the Earth.

Just as in the case of Jupiter, close to the time the Sun crosses Saturn's equator and ring-plane there will be a series of mutual events of some of Saturn's satellites. Some of these should be visible in a small telescope.

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Uranus, is in Aquarius at the start of 2009 as an evening object. It is at conjunction with the Sun on March 13, and will be lost in evening twilight by early February. It emerges from the glare of the Sun as a morning object early in April. By then the planet will have moved on into Pisces.

Uranus moves further into Pisces until it is stationary on July 1, after which its retrograde motion will take it back into Aquarius on October 18. Before that Uranus is at opposition on on September 17.

Neptune is in Capricornus all year and at conjunction on February 12. As a result it will be too close to the Sun to observe until mid or late March when it is in the morning sky. Opposition is on August 17, so it will be observable throughout the evening from about the beginning of September.

For quite a bit of the year, Neptune and Jupiter will be close in the sky, making Jupiter a useful starting point for locating Neptune, which should be visible in binoculars or, preferably a small telescope. The two planets are less than 3° apart from April 25 to August 12 and again from December 1 to 2010 January 7.

There will be 3 instances when the separation of the planets drops to a minimum. On May 27 they will be about 23' apart - three-quarters of the diameter of the full Moon. Then after Jupiter starts its retrograde motion they will close up again to be just over half a degree apart on July 10 and 11, with the magnitude 5 star mu Cap mid way between them. Lastly a lot later in the year on December 21, when Jupiter is moving forward again, the latter will overtake Neptune again at a distance of just over half a degree.