The Major Planets in January 2012

In the evening sky Venus will be brilliant to the west soon after sunset, the planet sets about 2 hours later. Jupiter will also be unmistakable as the brightest object to the northwest and visible all evening.

In the morning sky Mars will be to the northeast about 45 minutes before sunrise It begins to rise before midnight during the month. Saturn is also an easy object in the morning sky, rising by midnight at the end of January. Both planets will be best observed about an hour before sunrise. Mercury may be visible very low in the dawn sky for the first few days of January, but is mostly too close to the Sun to see.

Comet Levy will get higher in southern skies in January. It is expected to be magnitude 8 mid month so possibly just visible in binoculars. It will pass within a few degrees of Jupiter in the middle of January which should help in locating the comet.

The 5 naked eye Planets in January 2012

The usual notes on each planet for the month are on the left hand side of each section with a chart on the right.

The charts show the position or path of the planets for the month, unless the planet is too close to the Sun for observation. Stars to magnitude 5 are marked, with magnitudes for those brighter than 3.5 shown without a decimal point. The circle on each chart represents a field 10° in diameter, about the width of the 4 fingers of a hand held at arms length and twice the field of view of most binoculars.

The charts present a view as seen from mid latitudes in the southern hemisphere. The field shown in each chart is about 40° wide and 35° high. Star names are in white, constellation names in green.

All charts have been prepared using GUIDE 8 software published by Project Pluto

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MERCURY in January 2012
Mercury is in the morning sky throughout January but is going to be too low in the dawn sky to see. On the morning January 1, Mercury rises about 80 minutes before the Sun. 50 minutes before sunrise, Mercury will be about 5° above the horizon. Even though at magnitude -0.4 the planet will probably be lost to view in the brightening dawn sky. The planet will get steadily lower in the dawn sky through the rest of January. The diagram shows the path of Mercury for the first part of January. It starts the month in Ophiuchus just over 10° below Antares. Mercury crosses into Sagittarius on the 6th. The upper dark blue line shows the horizon some 50 minutes before sunrise on January 1, the dark blue line close to the bottom of the diagram shows the horizon on the 11th, again 50 minutes before sunrise.
VENUS in January 2012
Venus will be easily visible in the early evening sky throughout January, setting close to 2 hours after the Sun all month. Half an hour after the Sun goes down, Venus will be an obvious object about 15° up, a little to the south of west. Up to January 11 Venus will be moving through Capricornus. On the 12th it moves into Aquarius and passes Neptune the following day. The two will be just over 1° apart with Neptune, magnitude 8.0, to the lower right of Venus. The only star which could be confused with Neptune is a 7.5 magnitude star directly below Venus and about half the distance of Neptune. At magnitude 8, Neptune should be visible in binoculars. Later in the month, Venus overtakes the asteroid Vesta. On the 28th, Vesta magnitude 8.2 will be 4.5° to the upper left of Venus. A number of 4th and 5th magnitude stars will lead from Venus to Vesta. The way to confirm which star like object is Vesta is to check the field over a few evenings and note which object changes position from night to night relative to the nearby stars. To see Neptune and Vesta, it will be necessary to observe over an hour after sunset, by which time they will be getting quite low, only some 5 or 6° up. Much easier to see, on the 26th, the 10% lit crescent moon will be 7.5° below Venus, with the moon, Venus and Vesta forming a close to vertical line.	The chart shows the path of Venus through Capricornus and Aquarius during January. Also shown is Neptune at its position on January 13, it moves very little during the month. The path of Vesta is also marked, with Vesta and Venus shown in their position on January 28. Some of the brighter stars between the two are also shown and labelled. The chart makes it look that Venus gets steadily higher during the month. But each night the stars get a little lower at the same time. The result is that the altitude of Venus remains virtually the same each night 30 minutes after sunset.
MARS in January 2012
Mars starts to move into the evening sky in January after having been in the morning sky for the last 10 months. It rises about 12.30 am on the 1st, 10.40 pm on the 31st. By then it will have brightened to magnitude -0.5, starting to lead up to its opposition at the beginning of March. But during January Mars will still be best seen in the morning sky. At midnight on the 31st it will be only 14° up, as seen from Wellington, half way between east and northeast. Mars will be the brightest object in that part of the sky. The planet will be slow moving, starting January in Leo. Half way through the month it will cross into Virgo. On the 24th Mars will be stationary and then start moving in a retrograde sense, back to the west as the faster moving Earth starts to overtake the slower moving outer planet. On the morning of January 14 the 79% lit moon will be just under 10° to the upper left of Mars as seen about 5 am. The following morning, the moon now 69% lit will be just under 12° to the upper right of Mars.	The chart shows the path of Mars in the morning sky during January. The view shows the sky on the morning of January 1 about 45 minutes before sunrise. The positions of Mars on it path and the moon are also shown for the morning of January 14. The reversal in the direction of the motion of Mars later in the month can just be made out as a small hook near the end of the path.
JUPITER in January 2012
Jupiter will be readily visible in the evening sky, best seen as soon as the sky darkens to the northwest. It will get lower later in the evening. The planet sets about 2am on January 1, by midnight on January 31. The planet starts January in Pisces but on the 8th crosses back into Aries which it left in early December. The moon passes Jupiter twice in January. On the 3rd it will be 7° to the lower right of Jupiter with the moon 70% lit. A lunar cycle later, on the 30th the moon now only 42% lit will be 5.5° below Jupiter. (The moon will, of course, have made a complete circuit of the sky between the two dates.) Comet Levy will move higher into southern skies during January. It is expected to brighten to magnitude 8.1 by mid January, so should be visible in binoculars as a faint fuzzy patch. On January 14 it will be 6.5° to the left of Jupiter and only a little further from the planet for a couple of evenings either side of that date.	The chart shows the path of Jupiter in Pisces and Aries in January. The sky is orientated for about an hour after sunset. The chart also shows the path of comet Levy as it passes Jupiter mid January. It is marked at its position on January 14 when the two are closest. The position of the moon relative to Jupiter is shown for two dates in January, on the 3rd and again on the 30th.
SATURN in January 2012
Saturn will be easily visible in the morning sky before dawn to the northeast during January. It rises about 2 am at the beginning of January and close to midnight by the end of the month. The planet at magnitude 0.6 will be about 6.5° below Spica, which at magnitude 1.1 is the brightest star in Virgo. The moon, at just after last quarter, will join the planet and star on the morning of the 17th, the three forming a small triangle to the north east. They should be readily visible to the northeast 45 minutes before sunrise, that is shortly before 6 am. The chart shows the path of Saturn in Virgo during January. The sky is shown at its orientation about 45 minutes before sunrise. Saturn is marked on its path for the morning of the 17th when the moon, Saturn and Spica form a small triangle.