Sun rises at 6:45am.
Sun sets at 6:05pm.
Moon phase: last quarter, (half-lit and waning)
Moon rises at 11:439m.
Moon sets at 10:54am.
Planet Dance
The time is now! All five bright planets, the “naked-eye planets,” are visible in the sky at one time! Just look up about 6:00am; Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn can be seen simultaneously – it’s a fairly rare occurrence to get to see them all at once. It’s a window of opportunity that will last until February 20. The last time that all five visible planets appeared in the same sky together was 10 years ago, in January of 2005.
You need only clear skies and your bare eyes to see these delights; no binoculars or telescopes are required, but of course you will see more detail with a little magnification. Stand or sit in an observing spot that has an unobstructed view of the east, near where the sun will rise. Bear in mind, you will need to see a lot of the sky to see all five planets at once. Their arc spans more than half the sky.
The most challenging of this group to see will be Mercury, which is at its best in the next two weeks. It will rise about 5:15am, just after the brilliant “morning star,” Venus. Mercury will be just to the lower left of Venus, at a distance of about the width of your clenched fist at arm's length. Later in January, Mercury will get even closer to Venus.
The other three planets are visible in an arc to the right of Venus. There’s Saturn, which is just above the orangey star Arcturus. Next in the arc, you will see Mars, which is to the south and appears red. When you turn to the southwest, far past the bright star Spica, Jupiter will appear high in the sky.
The moon can help you as a celestial guide later in the month, when it begins to appear among the planets. It will be near Jupiter on Jan. 27 and 28, near Mars on Feb. 1, next to Saturn on Feb. 3, and by Feb. 5 and 6, the moon will be close to Venus and Mercury.
You can, of course, catch most of these planets long before dawn. Jupiter rises first, in the evening hours, followed by Mars after midnight and then Saturn, Venus and Mercury. Click here for recommended almanacs that will help you find when each planet rises into your sky for any given date.
Interestingly, the planets are not actually aligning in any special way out there in space. It’s all a matter of our earth-bound perspective. All the planets travel along a path in Earth's sky, it’s called the ecliptic, it is the line of our view of the plane of the solar system.
Such an event as this will happen next in mid-August, but then not again until mid-July 2020. May we be blessed with clear skies for the upcoming planetary spectacle, with all five bright planets taking stage in the same sky from now until February 20, 2016!
Compiled by Lisa Davis-Bunrett