Volume 16 Issue 1	January 2010

Planet Watch -- Keeping Track of the Visible Planets

Mercury starts the new year coming out from between us and the Sun - inferior conjunction. It will be visible before sunrise for most of the month.. Venus will not be visible this month as it will be at superior conjunction, on the opposite side of the Sun from us. Mars Mars reaches opposition this month and so it will be visible all night as it rises at sunset and sets at sunrise. Toward the end of the month, as Mars is moving westward in retrograde, it will pass withn a few degrees of the Beehive open star cluster. Click here to read more about this particular opposition or others - past and future. Jupiter is visible over the southwestern horizon a few hours before sunset local time. It will be about 4 degrees away from the much dimmer Neptune. Saturn rises around midnight during January and will be slightly brighter appearing as the angle of its rings sowly changes from edge-on. This year we will be looking 'down' toward the north side of the ring system.

Click Here For More Planet Information