Astronomy - USA (2022-01)

Visible to the naked eye

Visible with binoculars

Visible with a telescope

10°

Jan. 3, 30 minutes after sunset

Looking southwest

AQUARIUS

PISCIS

AUSTRINUS

AQUILA

CAPRICORNUS

Moon

Mercury

Venus

Jupiter

Saturn

Altair

Fomalhaut

32 ASTRONOMY • JANUARY 2022

The new year opens

with a spectacular

array of planets lined up in the

western sky soon after sunset.

Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and

Saturn offer nightly fascination.

A crescent Moon skips along

this line of planets over a few

nights early in the month. The

inner pair of planets, Mercury

and Venus, swaps places in the

first week of January. Mercury

remains in view through mid-

month, while Jupiter and Saturn

are visible all month. Uranus

and Neptune can be spotted

with binoculars, riding high in

the southern sky after sunset.

Only Mars is missing from the

nightly lineup — it’s over in the

morning sky, transiting the rich

star clouds of the Milky Way.

Four major planets crowd

the evening twilight sky in early

January, strung like jewels on a

necklace along the line of the

ecliptic. Catch them Jan. 1,

because Venus will dip out of

view after the first few days of

the month. It’s heading to a

Jan. 8 inferior conjunction. On

Jan. 1, Venus sets about 1 hour

after the Sun. Look for it 5° high

in the southwest 30 minutes

after sunset, shining at magni-

tude –4.2. Nearby, just 8° to the

String of planets (^)
JANUARY 2022

Four planets line up

THE SOLAR SYSTEM’S CHANGING LANDSCAPE AS IT APPEARS IN EARTH’S SKY.

BY MARTIN RATCLIFFE AND ALISTER LING

SKY THIS MONTH

upper left, is Mercury, glowing

a fainter magnitude –0.7.

The pair of inner planets is

joined by a 1-day-old, very

slender (2 percent lit) crescent

Moon Jan. 3, just 11.5° left of

Venus. Look 12° above our sat-

ellite for the ringed planet

Saturn (magnitude 0.7) in

Capricornus. Higher still, in

Aquarius, lies Jupiter, shining

at magnitude –2.1. The four

major planets span a total of

nearly 40°.

Venus drops out of view

soon after — how long can you

keep track of it in the evening

sky? It will reappear in the

morning sky around mid-

month, rising in the east about

an hour before the Sun and

shining at magnitude –4.3.

Venus’ visibility improves in

a darker sky throughout the rest

of the month, and it stands 12°

high an hour before sunrise on

Jan. 31. Through a telescope,

Venus changes from a 1'-wide

slender crescent that is 1 percent

lit on Jan. 15 to a 50"-wide,

15-percent-lit disk on Jan. 31.

Meanwhile, Mercury is

rising higher each evening,

improving its visibility. It

climbs toward Saturn and

Venus, Mercury, Saturn, and Jupiter add sparkle to the New Year, while a thin

crescent Moon joins in, too. ALL ILLUSTRATIONS: ASTRONOMY: ROEN KELLY

Four planets align in

the evening sky as

viewed from Alberta,

Canada, in March 1999.

Mercury is lowest,

nearly lost in the

twilight. Above it is

Jupiter, then bright

Venus, and finally

Saturn. A similar lineup

will greet us this New

Year. ALAN DYER