Volume 15 Issue 1	January 2009

Planet Watch -- Keeping Track of the Visible Planets

Mercury starts the new year as a very visible evening planet with the brighter Jupiter just to the right. Mercury moves past Jupiter on its way east to elongation on the 4th. It will continue to be visible over the southwestern horizon for at least the first two weeks of the month. Venus shines brightly over the western horizon after sunset as shown in this graphic set for 8 p.m. CST facing toward the southwest. On this date Venus reaches greatest eastern elongation. Mars is too close to the Sun and i snot visible this month. Jupiter shines brightly this month as an evening planet over the southwestern horizon after suunset. However this month will be the last to view Jupiter as an evening planet as it will be in conjunction with the Sun on the 24th. The giant planet will reappear as a morning planet during February. Saturn rises with the stars of Leo, during the evening before midnight local time and is visible the remainder of the night. However Saturn does not appear to be as bright as it usually appear to be as a result of the ring system being nearly edge-on as we see it from Earth. This animated graphic below shows the planet on January 15th at one year intervals starting from 2009 and ending in 2025. This year is about as 'thin' as the rings will be for the next 15 years or so.

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