Mountain skies	by Leslie Young

Venus and Mars grace the morning sky this month. Toward the end of the
month, the moon dances with both of them, and, at the end of the month,
Mars encounters its rival.

On January 1, brilliant Venus and red Mars are close together in the
sky. They both rise in the South-South-East near 3:30 (Mars at 3:25,
Venus at 3:39), with Mars 5 degrees to above and to the right of Venus.
During the month, these two planets move away from each other in the
sky. By January 31, they rise more than an hour apart (Mars at 3:04,
Venus at 4:11), and Venus is 16 degrees away from Mars.

Venus is the brightest object in the sky, after the Sun and Moon. At a
magnitude of -4.4, it's about 50 times brighter than the brightest stars
and about 10 times brighter than Jupiter. Since Venus orbits the Sun
closer than the Earth does, we get to see phases on Venus, just like we
see phases on the Moon. If you have a telescope, you can see that Venus
is exactly at quarter phase (half bright, half dark) on January 10.

The moon too is in its quarter phase when it rises in the east on
January 25. Two days later, on January 27, the moon passes just half a
degree south of Mars. Look at about 6 AM, when the sky is still dark
(with the Sun still 15 degrees below the horizon) and Mars is 23 degrees
above the eastern horizon. The next night, January 28, the crescent Moon
passes 4 degrees south of Venus. Venus is farther east, so at 6 AM it's
only 17 degrees above the eastern horizon. Since Venus and the Moon are
both so bright, you can probably wait until 6:30 or 6:45 to catch this
picturesque conjunction.

More action in the East closes out the month. If you have a very clear
view of the eastern horizon, try to spot elusive Mercury. It is 5
degrees north (and slightly east) is of the sliver of the Moon, which
rises at 6:14 on January 30. Higher in the sky on the same night (about
20 degrees above the eastern horizon at 6 AM), red Mars passes 5 degrees
North of the red star Antares. Antares means, literally, "rival of
Mars." On this night, Antares about 50% brighter than Mars, and it wins
this rivalry.