by Erich Karkoschka

	Mercury has the best evening apparition of 2019, visible after the 12th in the west at dusk, best around the 24th.
	Mars is still magnitude 1, 50 degrees high at dusk, sets after 11 pm. It is moving toward Aries and Taurus with Aldebaran of similar brightness and color.
	Uranus is 1 degree south of Mars on February 12. Although Mars is 100 times as bright as Uranus, both are of similar sizes, 6 arcsec versus 4 arcsec, but very different colors.
	Jupiter rises at 3 am and is 30 degrees high at dawn.
	Venus rises 4:30 am and is 20 degrees high at dawn.  Venus and Jupiter are only separated by 10 degrees at the beginning of the month.
	Saturn rises after Venus in early February.  On the 18th, it is within 1 degree of Venus.  Saturn and Jupiter are separated by 30 degrees, the closest since 2001.
	The moon will be back in the evening sky on the 6th, possibly on the 5th, very low in the WSW in bright twilight.  Binoculars may be needed to spot it depending on the atmospheric conditions.

by Erich Karkoschka

	TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE January 20:  8:34-11:51 pm, totality 9:41-10:44 pm. High in sky, near Castor and Pollux.  Southern limb of moon gets very close to the center of the umbra at mid eclipse (10:12 pm).
	Mars at magnitude 1, 60 degegrees high at dusk, sets after 11 pm. It is moving fast through the faint stars of Pisces.
	Uranus and Neptune on both sides of Mars visible in binoculars.
	Venus rises 4 am at brillant magnitude -4.5, high during dawn, naked eye visibility after sunrise.
	Jupiter at magnitude -2 rises first at 5 am. Jupiter and Venus approach each other. Closest on 21st, 2.5 degrees separation, spectacular around 6 am!
	Comet Wirtanen, magnitude 5 and dimming, moves fast from Lynx to Ursa Major, circumpolar.
	The moon will be close to Mars on the 12th and close to Venus on the 31st.
	Latest sunrise is January 8.

by Erich Karkoschka

	Saturn is still visible at dusk very low in the southwest until Dec 15.
	Mars at magnitude 0 transits at 6pm and sets at midnight. It is moving fast through Aquarius.
	Neptune is easy to find on Dec 7 when it is only 15 arc-minutes from Mars.
	Uranus transits at 9pm 68 degrees high in Pisces.
	Venus is magnitude -4.9, the brightest possible, high during dawn.
	Mercury is visible well below Venus from Dec 4 to Jan 4.
	Jupiter joins Mercury starting Dec 9 first below Mercury. On Dec 21, the pair is only 1 degree apart.  Afterwards, Jupiter will be higher than Mercury by 1 degree per day.
	The moon will be first visible on Dec 8 as a very thin crescent next to Saturn.  On Dec 14 it shines below Mars.
	The Geminids meteors will be very active on Dec 13 an 14.
	Winter solstice occurs on Dec 21. The length of the day stays near 10 hours all month, but sunrise and sunset both get delayed by about a quarter of an hour during December.