Monthly Skywatch

The Old Farmer's Almanac contains 14 months' worth of Skywatch information from our astronomer Bob Berman; as a courtesy to our web visitors, this information for the current and upcoming months is included below.

January 2009

The year begins with a final glimpse of Jupiter, hovering at 40 minutes, after sunset in the southwest, to the right of Mercury and just 8 degrees high. Also on the 1st, Venus blazes much higher up, with the crescent Moon higher still. Each successive evening until the 8th, Mercury ascends higher while Jupiter sinks from view. Saturn, in Leo, rises at around 9:30 P.M. at midmonth. Venus stands just to the right of Uranus on the 22nd and 23rd, above the Moon on the 29th, and below the Moon on the 30th. Mercury might be glimpsed very low in the east 40 minutes before sunrise from the 29th to the 31st. Earth reaches perihelion, its annual position closest to the Sun, on the 4th.

February 2009

Mercury is observable but mediocre in the east, about 7 degrees high 40 minutes before sunrise, from the 1st to the 17th. The gibbous Moon passes in front of the Pleiades star cluster on the 3rd, a superb sight through binoculars. Saturn now rises at around 8:00 P.M. and is well up by 10:00. Meanwhile, very low in the predawn sky on the 22nd, 40 minutes before sunrise, the Moon forms a line with Mercury, Jupiter, and Mars. this appears highest and is most easily seen from southern states. Venus attains its greatest brilliancy at a truly dazzling magnitude -4.8 and spectacularly meets the crescent Moon on the 27th.

March 2009

Saturn comes closest to Earth on the 8th. In Leo at magnitude 0.7, Saturn produces its faintest opposition since 1997, with its rings nearly edgewise. Venus starts March like a lion at a brilliant magnitude -4.8 but ends the month like a lamb, losing half its brightness and vanishing into the sunset. It passes far north of the Sun in its conjunction on the 27th, and it can be glimpsed on the 25th and 26th as both a very low evening star after sunset and a low morning star before sunrise. Also, in the morning sky, Jupiter is near the crescent Moon on the 22nd. Spring begins with the vernal equinox on the 20th at 7:44 A.M.