Venus is at greatest Elongation from the Sun. Thus, its disk is 50 percent illuminated in a telescope. Venus is still relatively high by the end of astronomical twilight. It gets to maximum magnitude at the end of the month.

Saturn gets passed by Venus on the 17/18th at 2 degrees distance. After that it will be below Venus. Its narrow rings are closing even more from 4 to 3 degrees.

Jupiter transits at 10 pm at 80 degrees altitude. It is high up most of the night. It is further closing to Aldebaran, although its retrograde motion slows.

Mars is at opposition on the 15th, with a magnitude of -1.5, as bright as Sirius, and a diameter of 14 arc-seconds. It is moving at relatively high speed retrograde, where it comes into line with Pollux and Castor on the 17th and forms a right triangle with them on the 31st. By that time, it transits at 11 pm at an extraordinary 84 degrees altitude.

Uranus and Neptune are evening objects between Jupiter and Saturn. Uranus is near the Pleiades.

Mercury is visible well around 6:30 am in the southeast. It is a little brighter than magnitude zero and thus outshines Antares easily which is further to the right.

The moon occults Mars on the 13th from 6:48 to 7:47 pm. Although Mars is at its brightest, the moon, only a few hours past Full Moon, is blinding so much that binoculars or a telescope are needed to make out Mars next to the lunar disk. It takes the moon about 15 seconds to completely cover and uncover the orange disk of Mars. The moon makes another close pass to Venus on February 1st.