Skywatch Line for Wednesday and Thursday, January 22 and 23, 2025, written by Alan French
This is Dudley Observatory’s Skywatch Line for Wednesday and Thursday, January 22 and 23, 2025, written by Alan French.
The Sun rises at 7:19 A.M. on Wednesday and sets at 4:56 P.M. On Thursday it rises at 7:18 A.M. and sets at 4:57 P.M. Thursday gained 13 minutes, 21 seconds of daylight compared to last Thursday.
The Moon reached last quarter on Tuesday and is now headed toward new. On Wednesday morning at 6:00 A.M. you will find the Moon 29-degrees above the southern horizon in the constellation Virgo. It will be just less than half-full, with 44% of its visible face in sunlight. As it moves toward new, we will see less of the sunlit half each morning.
On Wednesday night the Moon rises after midnight, finally making an appearance at 2:12 A.M. Thursday. At 6:00 Thursday morning look for a fat, 35% sunlit crescent Moon low toward the south. Moonset is at 11:32 A.M.
The evening skies will be dark and moonless even longer on Thursday, with the Moon not rising until 3:19 A.M. Friday morning. At 6:00 Friday morning a 26% sunlight waning crescent Moon will be 17-degrees above the south southeastern horizon. The Moon will set at 12:05 P.M. It will reach new on Wednesday, January 29.
Venus continues its dominance of the early evening sky, now shing at magnitude -4.5 and appearing 30-degrees high in the southwest at 6:00 P.M. Venus continues to catch up with Earth on its inner orbit, and now appears 28.4 arcseconds across and 44% illuminated through a telescope on Wednesday evening. Saturn, fainter at magnitude +1.1, is now just over 4-degrees below Venus on Wednesday, and approaching 5 degrees away on Thursday. Both planets are in the constellation Aquarius, the Water
Bearer.
By 6:45 P.M. all traces of evening twilight are gone and three of the four visible planets will shine brightly. Venus will still be in the west southwest, 23-degrees above the horizon, with Saturn a little over
four degrees below. Jupiter, at magnitude -2.6, will be high in the southeast, 60-degrees above the horizon. Reddish Mars, magnitude -1.3 will dominate the eastern sky, standing 30-degrees high.
Mars is in the constellation Gemini, the Twins, and the two bright stars that define the Twins, Castor and Pollux, are just to the upper left of Mars. Pollux is closest to Mars, just under 2 ½-degrees away. Pollux is
magnitude +1.2, just slightly brighter than Saturn, and Castor is magnitude +1.6, brighter than Mars and Pollux.
Uranus and Neptune are also in the sky at 6:45. At magnitude +7.9 Neptune is beyond the reach of our unaided eyes. It is a little over 8-degrees to the upper left of Venus and in the constellation Pisces.
Uranus, at magnitude +5.7, is just within reach of our eyes, but requires dark skies, free of light pollution, a good finder chart, and patience. If you look at Jupiter at 6:45 P.M., Uranus is slightly higher
in the sky and just over 18-degrees to Jupiter’s right, in the constellation Aries.
A modern planetarium app will show the precise location of Uranus for any night and time, and its position relative to the stars near it in the sky. By eye you might be able to see stars down to magnitude +6.0, but it depends on your eyes, sky transparency, and freedom from light pollution. Some people, especially those with younger eyes, may see even fainter stars under dark skies. A planetarium app can be tailored to your experience and eyes, and set to show only the stars you expect to see.