Mercury is on January 7th with a 19.2 degree angle distance in the greatest eastern elongation to the sun. The evening visibility that started at the end of December continues: On New Year's evening we find it at 5:07 p.m. CET when the sun has dropped to –6 degrees, five degrees above the southwest horizon and eight degrees southeastern (to the horizon »left «) The Hellen Venus. The moon passes Mercury about eight degrees on the evening of January 4th. On the day of the greatest elongation, the planet reaches a maximum horizont height at twilight ends at around 5:13 p.m. of around seven degrees (see "Planetry bum"). At this height, on the evening of January 12, he encounters Saturn, which is 3.4 degrees east. Up to the middle of the month, Merkur then fades at dusk. Its apparent brightness drops from –0.7 to plus 0.7 Mag. On January 23, Merkur reached his lower conjunction. Mercury appears in the morning sky just a week later, but still timid: in February there is a rather unusual morning visibility.
Venus changes the pages: If it can still be seen just at dusk on January 1, it will be in the lower conjunction on the 9th and appears from the middle of the month in the middle of the morning. On January 31, around 07:20 a.m. CET, i.e. at the beginning of bourgeois twilight, it stands conspicuously as –4.8 Mag Heller Morgenstern strikingly at a height of twelve degrees above the southeastern horizon. It will play this role until autumn, although the visibility due to the flatter ecliptic in spring, despite the greater solar distance, gets worse again. It is therefore worthwhile to head Venus with the telescope, especially in January and February - especially since our neighbor is still quite close in January of the earth, which is still quite close, which is in a large angle diameter (50 arch minute on January 31) and a narrow sickle (lighting level 14, 5 percent on January 31) manifested. On January 29, Venus, the Moon and the weak Mars are in a line above the southeastern horizon (see "Morgenstern meets War Planet").
Mars is in the morning sky, where it encounters the Moon and Venus on January 29. With 1.5 mag he is hardly noticeable; a telescope observation of the only 4.3 arc seconds small Martian disk is also not worthwhile.
Jupiter stands, –2.1 likes light, striking in the evening sky in January. However, the undergrounds of the giant planet are scattering from 8:50 p.m. CET on January 1 to 7:29 p.m. on the month of the month. Thus, at the end of January, only about an hour remains for observing the planet and its moons. In the telescope, Jupiter, measured by the equator, still appears large. The increasing moon passes Jupiter from January 5th to 6th south (see "Small Planary Parade").
Saturn, the striking ringed planet, disappears at the end of the month in the bright dusk and thus steps away from the celestial stage. On 1 January, the ringed planet will set at 19:05 CET, on the 15th already at 18:19. In the first days of January, all bright planets with the exception of Mars can be seen at dusk for a short time, whereby you need a clear, unobstructed view to the west, especially for Mercury and Venus. From 4 to 5 January, the moon moves south past Saturn (see »Small Planetary Parade«).
Uranus, 5.8 Mag Hell in the rod picture, becomes the object of the first half of the night. On January 1st, the planet culminates at 8:09 p.m. CET, it goes under at 3:25 a.m. the following morning. Its under the end of the month are scarying at 1:27 a.m. So there is enough time to study the planet, which appears in a telescope as a 3.6 arc second. In clear, moonless nights you can already be found with the naked eye as a weak asterisks, just under eleven degrees southeast of the 2.0 likes bright star Alpha Arietis (α Ari).
Neptune can be found in the constellation Aquarius, and thus in the evening sky. At the beginning of the month, it can be observed for about three hours after the end of dusk at a sufficiently high horizon; it sets on 1 January at 22:43 CET, on the 31st already at 20:48. With an apparent magnitude of 7.8 mag, it is too faint for the naked eye, you need at least binoculars to see it. In the telescope it appears at higher magnifications than 2.3 arc seconds large, pale blue disk.
