The moon starts off the year in the waxing gibbous phase, meaning it is gradually getting closer and closer to full phase. Gibbous means “humped” like a camel’s back. Jan. 1, the bright star Aldebaran in Taurus, the bull, is right beside our satellite, and just below, mighty Orion rises above the eastern horizon.
Full moon is Jan. 5. Jan. 8, Jupiter is five degrees north; by Jan. 16, Saturn is about two degrees south and Jan. 22 offers a splendid lineup of Mercury, Venus, Neptune, the moon and Mars in an early evening photo opportunity — look southwest just after sunset. Jan. 25, Uranus is involved in an occultation (again) for viewers around the Mediterranean. For us, Uranus is less than a degree away from the moon. And, we finish the month with Aldebaran again just over a degree away, another occultation for northern Canada.
Mercury is in a great position for most of the month, a very favourable apparition for northern viewers. Look for the speedy planet in the southwest just after sundown. Venus will be to the upper left or right beside Mercury for most of January.
Venus glows brightly in the western evening sky for the entire month, gradually getting higher with each passing day. The Evening Star puts on a great show with the dimmer Mars and Mercury throughout January. The three-planet lineup should provide many opportunities for the astrophotographer.
Mars, Venus and Mercury show off their gaudy appearance for most of the month, as they line up above the horizon in evening twilight. Mars is moving rapidly eastward against the starry backdrop, leaving the bright planets behind, passing Neptune, and looping into the constellation Aquarius.
Jupiter rises in the early eastern sky evening in Leo. The giant gas planet is retrograding, meaning it appears to move westward against the stars, while, in fact, our more rapid movement is the cause of the seeming anomaly. The ancient astronomers devised all sorts of systems to account for this apparent strange planetary behaviour because they thought the planets all revolved about the Earth, not the sun. After the Copernican Revolution, that theory was no longer accepted, and recognizing that the sun was at the centre of the Solar System explained all the strange movements.
Saturn rises in the southeast near 6 a.m. as the month begins. By Jan. 31, Saturn’s eastward movement through Leo has it rising at 4 a.m.
Uranus is in the western sky in Pisces, occulted by the moon for some viewers — one of 12 such encounters in 2015. The planets Mars, Venus, and Mercury put on a showy display in the January evenings, while Uranus hangs above it all, but only through a telescope, it’s too small to be seen with the unaided eye.
Neptune also participates in the showy lineup mentioned above, even though it can be seen only telescopically.
