It may be possible to glimpse Jupiter and Mercury low in the evening twilight at the beginning of the month, also Mars and Mercury in the morning twilight at the end.
Orbital diagrams for the inner planets December 2008 to March 2009, and the outer planets for 2009.
| Date (NZDT) | Diary of Solar System Events in January 2009 for New Zealand |
| January 1 | Jupiter 1.5° below Mercury, very low in evening twilight. |
| January 1 | 20% lit crescent Moon 8° to right of Venus, low in early evening sky. |
| January 2 | Saturn stationary. |
| January 2 | 29% lit Moon 5° below Uranus, early evening sky. |
| January 4 | Mercury, at greatest elongation, 19° east of Sun. |
| January 5 | Moon at first quarter 12:56am NZDT (Jan 4, 11:56 UT). |
| January 5 | Earth at perihelion, its closest to Sun for the year, 0.98327 AU = 147.1 million kilometres |
| January 10 | Moon at perigee, its closest to the Earth for the Lunar month, 357499 km. |
| January 11 | Full Moon at 4:27pm NZDT (03:27 UT):
Moon 5.6° below Pollux, magnitude 1.2, brightest star in Gemini, evening sky |
| January 11 | Mercury, stationary. |
| January 13/14 | 92% lit waning Moon at to left of Regulus, magnitude 1.4, brightest star in Leo, closest, 2.5° apart, before sunrise Jan 14. |
| January 15 | Venus, at greatest elongation, 47° east of Sun. |
| January 16 | 75% lit Moon 6° to upper right of Saturn, closest early morning sky. |
| January 18 | 54% lit Moon 2.56° above Spica, magnitude 1.1, brightest star in Virgo, closest before sunrise. |
| January 18 | Moon at last quarter 3:46pm NZDT (02:46 UT). |
| January 21 | Mercury at inferior conjunction. |
| January 22 | 18% lit Moon 1 to 2° below Antares, magnitude 1.1, brightest star in Scorpius, closest at moonrise. |
| January 22/23 | Moon furthest south, so highest southern hemisphere transit for the month. |
| January 23 | Moon at apogee, its greatest distance from the Earth for the Lunar month, 406115 km. |
| January 24 | Venus 1.3° from Uranus evening sky. |
| January 24 | Jupiter at conjunction with the Sun. |
| January 26 | New Moon at 8:55 pm NZDT (07:55 UT). Annular eclipse of Sun, not visible from NZ. |
| January 28 | Mercury just over 4° to the lower left of Mars, very low in the dawn sky. |
| January 30 | 15% lit crescent Moon 3° below Venus in the evening sky. |
Return to Top of page. Diary of events. RASNZ home page
MERCURY starts the year as a low object in the evening twilight
setting about 75 minutes after the Sun. On January 1 it will be 1.5° above Jupiter which
may help find it in the twilight. The planets will be between west and southwest, sweeping
with binoculars should help locate Jupiter. Over the following few evenings both Mercury and
Jupiter will get lower in the twilight.
Mercury reaches inferior conjunction with the Sun on January 21, NZ time. By the end of the month it will be rising 75 to 80 minutes before the Sun in the morning sky. The planet will again a companion, this time Mars will be 5° to the right of Mercury. Unlike the case of Jupiter, the 2 will be similar in brightness, both 1st magnitude. Again they will still be very low objects when the sky gets to bright to observe them, a while before 6 am. They will be between east and southeast.
VENUS will continue a very prominent object in the evening sky,
setting shortly before midnight NZDT at the beginning of January. The planet it at greatest
elongation, 47° east of the Sun on January 15. As a result it will be setting about
about an hour earlier at the end of the month.
Venus passes Uranus towards the end of January. The two will be a little over a degree apart on the evening of January 22 and 23. Uranus will be to the upper right of Venus on the first evening and to it upper left on the second. At magnitude 5.9 Uranus will be the brightest object immediately above Venus, and will be readily visible in binoculars.
On January 30, the crescent Moon will be 3° below Venus. By then Uranus will be nearly 7° to the left of Venus, the two almost level.
MARS will rise just over half an hour before the Sun at the
beginning of January, so will not be observable. By the end of the month it will be up
about 75 minutes before the Sun so it will be possible to locate the planet in the morning
twilight. Mercury will be about 5° to the left of Mars, the former at magnitude 1.1
slightly brighter than Mars at 1.3.
JUPITER starts January as a very low object in the evening sky
which may be briefly visible in the twilight shortly after sunset, in a direction between
west and southwest. On January 1 Mercury will be 1.5° above Jupiter.
Each following evening Jupiter will set a little earlier and will be completely lost in the twilight within a few days. The planet is at conjunction with the Sun on January 24, so will not be observable for the rest of the month.
SATURN will rise a little after midnight NZDT on January 1 so will
only be observable in the morning sky. It is at a stationary point in its orbit on the 2nd
after which it will start moving in a retrograde, westerly, direction through the stars. This
effect is due to the faster moving Earth beginning to overtake Saturn. In fact its position in
Leo will change very little through the month.
By the end of January Saturn will be rising a little before 11 pm in New Zealand so becoming visible by midnight.