Mercury, Venus, and Mars are all behind the Sun. Mercury and Venus pass the Sun and thus will become evening planets in February. Mars lags behind, so that it will become a morning planet, but not until May.

Saturn transits a little before sunset. Its rings open up fast, from .8 to 2.0 degrees, or from .5 to 1.3 arc-seconds width.

Neptune is approached by Saturn, from 3 to 1.7 degrees distance. Saturn will pass Neptune in February.

Uranus is transiting 77 degrees high around 8 pm. It is 4 degrees south of the Pleiades and just visible by naked eye at magnitude 5.6.

Jupiter comes in opposition on the 10th. It is still near Pollux. With a diameter of 46 arc-seconds, it is a perfect object in telescopes. At magnitude -2.7, it casts shadows at very dark sites. On the 6th, Ganymede’s shadow starts crossing Jupiter’s disk, followed by the moon itself 20 minutes later. Ganymede shows up as a small dark disk on Jupiter in telescopes, but not as dark as its black shadow.

January is the month when the sunset gets delayed by 28 minutes, more than every other month.

Saturn is transiting around 7 pm, later this month at 6 pm, ideally suited for evening observations. Its rings open and brighten up by a factor of three this month, but remain as thin as a line. All moons orbit back and forth on the same line.

Neptune is 3 degrees east of Saturn. On February 15, it will be the minimum in 35 years, less than 1 degree.

Uranus is 4.5 degrees south of the Pleiades. This month is the closest distance during its 84 year orbit.

Jupiter rises at 8 pm, later at 7 pm. It is near Pollux. It is getting close to opposition.

Mercury is very easy to see around 6:15 to 6:30 am. It rises even before twilight starts.

The Moon is back in the evening sky on the Solstice, the 21st, as a thin crescent. The highest Full Moon in its 18-year nodal cycle occurs on New Year’s Day at 11 pm with an altitude of 86 degrees, not far from 90 degrees.

Saturn is transiting around 9 pm, later this month at 8 pm, ideally suited for evening observations. Its rings can open up to 27 degrees. In July they were open by only 3 degrees. During the second half of November it is only a minuscule 0.2 degrees. Since they are will illuminated, they show up as a line of no thickness in a telescope. The line has brighter and dimmer parts as the different rings have different brightness.

Neptune is only 4 degrees to the northeast of Saturn. Saturn will pass it on Friday November 16, finishing the triple conjunction between both planets this opposition period. The last one was 1989. The following conjunction in 2061 will be single.

Uranus is in opposition on November 21st. This is the closest opposition to the Pleiades, only 4 degrees to the south. This happens once every 84 years.

Jupiter rises around 9 pm, becoming a better evening object. It is close to Pollux in Gemini.

Venus rises around 6 am during twilight. It remains low before the sun comes up.

Mercury will start its best apparition of 2025 on November 28, lasting for a whole month, rising even before dawn starts.

The first sighting of the moon after New Moon will be on November 21st. It will be difficult to see, even though it is well illuminated two days after new Moon. However, its extreme southern declination of -29 degrees gives it a low elevation above the southwestern horizon.

Comet Lemmon is still a bright comet of magnitude 5 with a significant tail. It sets around 8 pm in Ophiuchus, but this time gets earlier every day by 5 minutes. Its days of visibility are soon over.

Mars is just visible at dusk during the first half of October.

Mercury is visible during the second half of October, a little better than Mars. It passes Mars two degrees south on the 20th.

Saturn transits 55 degrees high during late evening. Its rings are thin, and thinning further. The ring tilt decreases from 1.5 to .6 degrees. On the 5th, a transit of Titan occurs across Saturn’s disk, starting at 6:25 pm. Titan’s shadow moves near Saturn’s North Pole from 9:26 to 11:44 pm.

Neptune is 3 degrees to the northeast of Saturn.

Uranus is up during late evening, 4 degrees south of the Pleiades.

Jupiter rises around midnight and is high up by dawn.

Venus rises around 5 am and is 20 degrees high by sunrise.

The moon moves across the Pleiades on the 9th from 8 to 10 pm.

Mars is the evening planet, getting lower in the west at the end of twilight.  In September it becomes difficult to see.

Saturn rises at midnight at the beginning of July, but already at sunset by its opposition on September 20. Its rings are very faint since their southern side only started to get illuminated in May. They are visible as a line extending on both sides of the planet.

Venus rises around 3 am. It is 20 degrees high in the east by the time dawn starts.

Jupiter rises shortly before the sun at the beginning of July, but already around 1 am by late September. Venus and Jupiter are only 1 degree apart from each other on August 12, a beautiful sight.

Mercury is well visible during dawn in the second half of August, about 15 degrees below Venus.

Uranus is visible in the morning sky.

Neptune is only 1 degree south of Saturn all July and August, increasing to 2 degrees by late September, a rare chance to see both planets in the same telescopic field.  Once they separate next year, it will take until 2061 before they get together again. That conjunction will not be visible because the sun will be too close.  So the next chance will be in 2097.

Minor planet (4) Vesta is still relatively bright at magnitude 7.

The moon is close to Venus on the morning of August 20, when Jupiter is also nearby. The three brightest objects in the sky fit within a 10 degree field.

The Perseid meteor shower is active from late July to late August with a maximum on August 12. While it gets dark around 8 pm, the moon rises at 9:15 pm, leaving little time of dark sky.

Mercury is well visible during the second half of June, not far from Pollux in Gemini. It sets at 9 pm, but already appears before 8 pm in the bright twilight.

Jupiter is close to Elnath, the southern star of the Auriga hexagon. It is visible low in the west during dusk until June 8, when Jupiter passes a few arc-minutes south of the summer solstice point, the location of the sun at the summer solstice. It marks the peak declination of its 12-year track through the constellations.

Mars is high in the southwest during dusk and sets around midnight. On June 15 it is less than a degree north of Regulus, which has the same magnitude but is bluish against Mars’ orange color.

After midnight, there are a couple of hours with no planet in sight. Except if you have dark sky and good vision, you can see Vesta, minor planet no. 4 at magnitude 6, even 5.6 during the first week of May. It passes through eastern Virgo, just south of the celestial equator. In May, it moves sufficiently fast to be able to notice its motion from night to night by naked eye.  In June it slows down to become prograde again.

Venus rises at 2:40 am in early May and an hour earlier by late June. It is close to maximum magnitude in early May.  It moves from the first point of Aries (which is in Pisces) to close to the Pleiades by the end of June.  In a telescope it is a beautiful crescent in May going through half illuminated in early June.

Saturn rises before 4 am at the beginning of May, but already at midnight by the end of June.  Saturn’s rings are invisible since the Earth is south of the ring plane while the sun still illuminates the northern side.  On May 6, the sun crosses the ring plane to the south, and the rings become better and better illuminated.  Saturn is close to first point of Aries, also close to Venus at the beginning of May. In the vicinity is also Neptune, and Saturn and Neptune will be only one degree apart from each other for all June and well into the summer, a great opportunity to easily locate Neptune in binoculars and telescopes.

The Moon is an extremely thin crescent on the evening of May 27 and a thicker one on June 26.

Jupiter is close to Aldebaran and setting around 11 pm.

Mars is a little further east near Pollux. Around 8 pm, it transits 80 degrees high. Telescopes still show details on its surface, but at 8 arc-seconds diameter, one cannot expect too much.

After all planets are down, Venus rises around 4 am. It reaches maximum brightness during the second half of April at magnitude -4.8. It displays a magnificent thin, large crescent, but getting smaller and thicker during April.

Mercury and Saturn become visible around the 10th in the morning. They can be found 6 degrees below Venus, close to the horizon during dawn. At mid-month, they are only 2 degrees apart from each other. Mercury is left of Saturn and a little brighter. Mercury stops its retrograde motion right next to Saturn and then quickly accelerates away from Saturn.

Uranus is 6 degrees south of the Pleiades, but becomes too close to the sun later to be observable.

Minor planet No. 4 Vesta is at its brightest in May. It will be visible to the naked eye. During April it rises in Libra around 8 pm.

The Full Moon will be very close to Spica on the 12th. On the morning of the 25th, its crescent is near Venus and Saturn, not far from Mercury. Neptune is also right there, but not visible.

Mercury starts its good evening visibility on the 21st, lasting until March 14. You can find it looking low straight west around 7 pm.

Saturn is getting close to the sun and is only visible until the 21st. On the 25th, it can be found 2 degrees south of Mercury in binoculars. Saturn’s rings become very thin, only one arc-second wide. In March, Earth will move to the south side of the rings for the next 14 years.

Venus obtains its all-time maximum magnitude of -4.9. Its brightness makes it possible to find during daytime if the sky is very clear. Around 3 pm it is 60 degrees high in the south. By sunset, it still is 40 degrees high. Telescopes show a growing crescent in size, to 40 arc-seconds, but getting thinner with only 16% illumination. It is moving toward its inferior conjunction on March 20.

Jupiter transits 80 degrees high around 7 pm near Aldebaran. Its size is comparable to that of Venus, but its magnitude is only -2.4, which is still a magnitude brighter than Sirius, lower in the sky.

Mars shines at magnitude -1 near Pollux. It transits 84 degrees high around 10 pm. Its 13 arc-second disk still shows good detail in telescopes.

Uranus is visible in binoculars 6 degrees south of the Pleiades, visible during the evening.

Vesta brightens to above magnitude 7, starting a good visibility period this spring. It rises just before midnight in Libra.

The very young moon will be visible on the last day of February. It will be only 24 hours after New Moon. You can find it shortly after sunset near the horizon about 5 degrees left of straight west. The following Full Moon on March 14 will bring a TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE.