In the morning Venus is too close to the Sun to observe while Saturn rises earlier and gets higher before dawn.
Orbital diagrams for the inner planets November 2009 to March 2010, and the outer planets for 2010.
| Date (NZDT) | Diary of Solar System Events in January 2010 for New Zealand |
| January 1 | Full Moon at 8:13am NZDT (Dec 31, 19:13UT). Slight partial eclipse, not visible from New Zealand. |
| January 2 | Moon at perigee, its closest to the Earth for the Lunar month, 358681 km. |
| January 3 | Earth at perihelion, its closest to Sun for the year, 0.98329 AU = 147.1 million kilometres |
| January 4 | 89% lit Moon 7.5° above Mars, morning sky. |
| January 5 | Mercury, at inferior conjunction between Earth and Sun. |
| January 7 | 59% lit Moon 7° above Saturn, morning sky. |
| January 7 | Moon at last quarter 11:40pm NZDT (10:40 UT). |
| January 8 | 48% lit Moon 5° from Spica, magnitude 1.1, brightest star in Virgo, closest before sunrise. |
| January 12 | 11.5% lit Moon 3° below Antares, magnitude 1.1, brightest star in Scorpius, morning sky. |
| January 12 | Venus, at superior conjunction, far side of Sun. |
| January 12 | Moon furthest south, so highest southern hemisphere transit for the month. |
| January 15 | Saturn stationary. |
| January 15 | New Moon at 8:11 pm NZDT (07:11 UT). Annular eclipse of Sun, not visible from NZ. |
| January 16 | Mercury stationary. |
| January 17 | Moon at apogee, its greatest distance from the Earth for the Lunar month, 406432 km. |
| January 18 | 8% lit Moon 5° from Jupiter evening sky. |
| January 20 | 21% lit Moon 6° from Uranus evening sky. |
| January 23 | Moon at first quarter 11:53am NZDT (10:53 UT). |
| January 27 | Moon furthest north, so lowest southern hemisphere transit for the month. |
| January 27 | Mercury at greatest elongation, 25° west of Sun. |
| January 28 | Mars closest to Earth, 0.664 AU, 99.3 million km. |
| January 30 | Mars at opposition, magnitude -1.3.
The full Moon 6° to its upper right in the evening. |
| January 30 | Full Moon at 7:18pm NZDT (06:18 UT) and at perigee, its closest to the Earth for the lunar month and the year, 356 594km. |
| January 31 | 98% lit waning Moon 3° above Regulus, magnitude 1.4, brightest star in Leo, closest just after midnight. |
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At first after conjunction, Mercury will be too close to the Sun to be visible. The planet will be moving to the west, the opposite direction to the Sun, so their separation will increase quite rapidly. It is stationary on January 16, after which Mercury will move to the east, but at first quite slowly so that its elongation from the Sun will continue to increase until January 27 when it will be 25° west of the Sun.
By the last week in January Mercury will rise up to 2 hours before the Sun, and be some 12° above the horizon 45 minutes before sunrise. The planet will be a little way round to the south from east in Sagittarius a few degrees to the left of the handle of the "teapot". With a magnitude close to zero, Mercury will be more than 2 magnitudes brighter than the brightest star in the handle, Nunki, magnitude 2.1 so readily distinguishable.
Close to opposition, Mars will also be at its brightest, magnitude -1.3, and appear largest for the current apparition, 14 arc-seconds in diameter. Mars is closest to the Earth a couple of days earlier.
As might be expected with an opposition near mid-summer, Mars will be low in southern skies, at a similar altitude to the mid-winter Sun. The planet starts January in Leo; on the morning of January 4 the Moon, 89% lit, will be about 7° to its upper right of Mars. The retrograde motion of the planet takes it back into Cancer on January 10. By the 30th Mars will be less than 4° below the Beehive cluster, while the full Moon passes Mars for a second time this month, just over 6° to the upper right of the planet.
Jupiter starts January in Capricornus, with Neptune 2° to its west. The brighter planet moves steadily to the east during the month, and will have moved into Aquarius on the 6th. On the 18th the Moon, will be 5° to the lower right of Jupiter, but both will be low to the west by the time the sky starts to darken following sunset.
At present the Moon is not passing very close to Saturn. The two are just over 7° apart on the morning of January 7, with the 59% lit moon visible above Saturn in the morning sky.