01/01/2020 – Ephemeris – A Happy New Year look at the naked-eye planets

Happy New Year, this is Ephemeris for New Years Day, Wednesday, January 1st. 2020. The Sun will rise at 8:20. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 52 minutes, setting at 5:12. The Moon, 1 day before first quarter, will set at 11:48 this evening.

Let’s look at the naked-eye planets for this week. Venus is our evening star low in the southwest in the early evening. It will set at 8:02 p.m. Saturn sets only 50 minutes after sunset and is not visible. It will pass behind the Sun on the 13th and will then join Jupiter in the morning sky. Jupiter is too close to the Sun in the morning twilight to be seen. Mars is visible in the morning sky and will rise in the east-southeast at 5:04 a.m. It’s not very bright because it’s 202 million (326 million km) miles away, but it’s getting slowly closer to the Earth at the rate of about 4 million miles (6 million km) a week. Mercury is now too close to the Sun to be seen in the morning, but will move into the evening sky on the 10th.

The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Venus and the Moon in the evening tonight at 7 p.m. January 1, 2020. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.

The crescent Moon as it might appear in binoculars or a small telescope tonight at 7 p.m. January 1, 2020. Created using Stellarium.

Venus, much larger than it would appear in any telescope to show its gibbous phase, tonight January 1, 2019. Created using Stellarium.

Mars in the morning with the bright stars at 7 a.m. January 1, 2020. Note that Mars is approaching the red giant star Antares. The name Antares means “Rival of Mars” (Ant – anti, Ares -the Greek god of war that the Romans appropriated as Mars). Mars will pass 4.8 degrees north of Antares on the 17th. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using Stellarium.

Planets and the Moon at sunset and sunrise of a single night starting with sunset on the right on January 1, 2020. The night ends on the left with sunrise on the 2nd. Click on the image to enlarge. Created using my LookingUp program.