The morning “parade of planets” finishes April with Jupiter and Saturn very close. They’re as close as 0.2° at about 21 hours UT on the 30th. The best views are from about 105° east longitude. Too far east of there, and the closest conjunction hasn’t happened yet before the sun rises. Too far west of […]

Venus, Saturn, and Mars are in a dawn lineup as April begins. The red and ringed planets are in the east side of Capricornus. For northern hemisphere watchers, that’s on the left. From south of the equator, it’s the bottom of the constellation. Venus is between Capricornus and Aquarius. Observers in the low northern latitudes […]

All the naked eye planet watching this month is in the morning. A waxing crescent moon rises into the evening through Pisces early in the month. It’ll be near Uranus on the 6th. See the moon passing between the Pleiades and the Hyades on the evening of the 8th. Orion is high in the sky […]

Brilliant Venus shines left of Mars in the morning twilight at February’s start. Venus is in Scutum and Mars is above Kaus Borealis (the northern bow star) atop the Sagittarius teapot. Close to sunrise, you may be able to find Mercury below them left of Sagittarius. Venus and Mars draw closer to each other as […]

We start a new year with four naked eye planets in the evening sky. One is already on the way out of the party and it won’t be long before the rest follow it to the morning sky. You may be able to see Venus very close to the horizon in the southwest as darkness […]

All the naked eye planet watching this month is not long after sunset and not long before sunrise. The evening planet watching last longer, because some of the planets are higher than others at sunset and set later. And depending on how visible it is, you may catch Comet Leonard at either time. (The moving […]

In case you want to know which way it is to the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, look at Venus in the southwest just after sunset on November 1. It’s almost in our line of sight to the galactic center. The planet is about five minutes, 21 seconds of light time from us. It […]

Venus is just outside the Libra diamond on the east side when the sun sets on October 1st. For northern hemisphere observers, the planet sets not long after sunset despite being at its greatest elongation later this month. The planet moves eastward into Scorpius, coming close to Dschubba on the 9th. A thin young moon […]

This month, Mars is retreating from the evening sky into the sun’s light. Northern hemisphere sky watchers shouldn’t expect to see it. Southern hemisphere observers probably won’t see it either, but they have a slightly better chance. Mercury is moving into the evening sky for the first half of the month. A waxing crescent moon […]

Venus and Mars are setting along with Leo not long after the sun these evenings. At the month’s start, the red planet is still near Regulus after their recent close call. Venus is leaving Leo. On, to Virgo. A thin crescent moon passes Mars on the 9th and Venus on the 10th. Watch Venus pass […]