THE PLANETS

January evenings are slim pickings with Mars the only naked-eye planet visible, setting about 23:00 AEDT. Mornings see Venus low in the east, around an hour before dawn. As mentioned above, Jupiter is not far from Venus, rising around 02:00 AEDT midmonth. Mercury concludes a poor morning return, becoming too low to observe and in the Sun’s glare by midmonth. As this speedy messenger departs, Saturn races past, returning to the morning, rising at 03:00 AEDT by month’s end.