Planet View And Meteor Watching

As it darkens, the long night skies of this chilly winter month will provide excellent opportunities for stargazing, planet viewing, and meteor watching. The rocky planets Mercury, Venus, and Mars would be congregating in the pre-dawn sky during this first month of 2024. Both elusive planet Mercury and romantic Venus would be fleeting across the southern sector of the broad constellation Ophiuchus (serpent bearer) and the northern side of the constellation Sagittarius (archer). Mercury would reach its greatest western elongation from the sun on January 12. It would be the best time to marvel at Mercury since it would attain its highest place above the eastern horizon in the morning. The planet would otherwise lie low in the eastern sky just before sunrise before it would be lost in the solar haze. Planet Venus would be visible in the southeastern sky shortly before sunup. It would slowly be evanescent at daybreak. The red planet Mars will stay out of sight this month. It would be hugging the eastern horizon at daybreak. It would be marching across the northern section of sprawling Sagittarius during the day.