Ps. 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Don’t you hate it when you hear, “Well, I have good news and bad news. Which would you like to hear first?” Like when you go on SpaceWeather.com and see that the Kp index is sitting at 9 (which means bright northern lights are probably visible in Texas!) and when you switch to weather.com the forecast is for overcast for next two days! This is like when you get a notification that your new telescope has been delivered and the clouds are moving away, (Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!) but you remember that tonight is Full Moon! That’s kind of how I feel about January. Some of the most beautiful constellations, the brightest stars and clearest atmosphere happens in January (the good news) but clear skies in January most often mean the coldest nights of the year (definitely the bad news). Occasionally, we get the best of both worlds, clear moonless night and relatively warm temperatures. I can remember a public night that we scheduled for the first week in January a while back and though it was slightly hazy, most of the sky was good and we were out in short sleeved shirts – it was amazing. Let’s hope for a January thaw like the one I experienced back then sometime this month, shall we? One great candidate for our warm January evening might be on the night of January 4th. On that night, the moon will be a convenient guide to help locate our two closest planetary neighbors: Mars and Venus. Can you remember back to 4th grade when you learned the names of the planets and their order in increasing distance from the Sun? First was hard to spot little Mercury then Venus then Earth the Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. I know, Pluto is technically classified as a “dwarf planet” but when I was in forth grade, it was still one of the nine planets in our solar system. Our nearest neighbor toward the Sun is Venus and on January 4th and the rest of the month, as well, Venus will dominate the southwest with her bright silvery light. On the 4th you will want to go out just after it gets dark and look for the Moon in the southwest. The moon will appear as a beautiful crescent about 20 percent illuminated. At 7 o’clock it will be about 25 degrees up from the horizon, a little higher if you go out earlier. Venus will be almost 8 degrees below and slightly to the right. Super bright, you won’t be able to miss it. In a straight line from Venus through the Moon and on past about 3 degrees (the width of your thumb held at arm’s length) is our next further planetary neighbor, Mars. Mars is not nearly as bright as Venus which will be magnitude -4.4 on January 4th, but it will still be quite bright at magnitude +.9. Remember, negative magnitudes are brighter than positive magnitudes. But +0.9 is still pretty bright! Hidden between the Moon and Mars is another planet we don’t often talk about because it is right at the limit of what most people are able to see without a telescope or at least a pair of binoculars. Far away Neptune is almost exactly in the middle of the Moon and Mars, although it is much farther away being the 8th planet out from the Sun and being so far away, it shines at a dim magnitude 7.9. Out of range for most of us using only our eyes but if you own a pair of binoculars or almost any telescope, you should have no trouble at all locating this pretty blue world. In binoculars, you will be able to pick out the unusual color. With a telescope and little magnification you should be able to see it as a disk rather than a point like star. Depending on when this article is published for you, January 4th may already be history for you, but if the January thaw we are hoping for comes late in the month, say on January 30th, you will still have a chance to use the Moon to help you find Neptune (while wearing a short sleeve shirt). On the 30th, the Moon will only be about 10 percent lit so it will be a little hard to see naked eye, but again, binoculars will help and you will need them to spot Neptune anyway. Go out that evening about 6:45 or 7 o’clock and find the Moon. It will be about 14 degrees from the southwestern horizon. Neptune will be below and slightly to the right of the Moon. They will be about 7 degrees apart so for most binoculars, Neptune will appear in the field at the 5 o’clock position as the Moon exits at about the 11 o’clock position if you are scanning mostly down and slightly to your right. The next night, Jan 31, the Moon will make a nice triangle with Venus slightly down and to the right and Mars slightly above and to the right. Even farther up and slightly to the left is the 7th planet from the Sun, Uranus. Harder to find, and I’m out of space so you’ll need to look it up in your favorite planetarium program or astronomy web site like skyandtelescope.com. Let’s hope for clear skies and a warm January Thaw this year! Happy New Year!