January 18, 2025: A Venus-Saturn conjunction occurs after sunset in the southwestern sky. The two planets are part of a nightly planet parade that marches westward from Earth’s rotation.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 7:14 a.m. CST; Sunset, 4:49 p.m. CST. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.
Venus-Saturn Conjunction
After sundown, Venus is visible close to Saturn, a Venus-Saturn conjunction. The Evening Star is nearing its greatest brightness, outshining all other starlike bodies in the sky tonight. It is six times brighter than Jupiter, the second brightest starlike body, and 16 times brighter than Sirius, the night’s brightest star. It is 175 times brighter than Saturn, even though the Ringed Wonder would rank 16th on the brightest star’s list, slightly outshining Pollux.
Stars and Starlike Bodies
The planets appear as stars without the aid of a telescope and are described as starlike bodies. This term includes the stars. Like other groups, astronomers rank the sizes, distances, brightnesses, and other factors. Sirius is the brightest star, representing bodies that make their own light through nuclear fusion. Here, we distinguish between all the objects that appear as stars – the starlike bodies – and the celestial furnaces that blaze with their own light – the stars.
This evening Venus passes 2.2° to Saturn’s upper right, too far apart to fit into a telescopic eyepiece. This separation is over the apparent size of four full-moon diameters. While the planets appear near each other in the night sky, they are nearly 900 million miles apart in space.
Three Venus-Saturn Conjunctions this Year
Typically, a Venus-Saturn conjunction occurs every year. This is the first of three Venus-Saturn conjunctions during this calendar year. The next two occur after both planets reappear in the morning sky. The next one occurs on April 7th, during bright morning twilight. The third one occurs on April 25th.
After the Venus-Saturn conjunction, watch Venus move eastward faster than Saturn each evening, opening a widening gap with the Ringed Wonder. In a week, the gap is 6.4°. At month’s end they are 10.7°, when the crescent moon is below Saturn.
Jupiter in East-Southeast
Venus and Saturn are part of a nightly parade of four bright planets that includes Jupiter and Mars. An hour after sundown, when Venus and Saturn are in the southwest, bright Jupiter is over halfway up in the east-southeast. It retrogrades in front of Taurus, 5.2° to Aldebaran’s upper left, the Bull’s brightest star. The Jovian Giant’s retrograde ends in about two weeks.
Mars near Pollux
At this hour, reddish Mars is over 15° up in the east-northeast, 2.8° to Pollux’s lower right, one of the Gemini Twins. Mars’ quick retrograde carries it through a conjunction with Pollux in four nights, followed by a conjunction with Castor on the 31st.
Just three nights after opposition, the planet is in the sky nearly all night.
The four planets span 129°. Now that Venus is moving east of Saturn, this distance decreases until Mars’ retrograde ends on February 23rd, when the separation is 117°.
Gibbous Moon, Late Night
As midnight approaches, the gibbous moon, 73% illuminated, is nearly 20° up in the east-southeast and 9.2° to Porrima’s upper right, also known as Gamma Virginis. At this time, Jupiter is over halfway up in the west-southwest, while Mars is high in the south, the direction where a planet at opposition should appear.
Moon Earlier Today
Before sunrise today, the gibbous moon, 80% illuminated is less than halfway up in the west-southwest. It is in front of Leo near the border with Virgo. The lunar orb is nearly 22° to the upper left of Regulus, the Lion’s brightest star, and over 12° to Denebola’s lower left, the animal’s tail.
Before Sunrise, Mars in Western Sky
After its all-night westward journey across the sky, the Red Planet is less than 15° up in the west-northwest to the left of Pollux and Castor, and over 35° to Regulus’ lower right.
Mercury, a No Show
Mercury retreats toward its solar conjunction. It rises 42 minutes before the sun and it is lost in bright twilight. It emerges from western evening twilight as Saturn disappears towards its solar conjunction during late February.
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Your cover picture is extremely misleading and unhelpful to get people to be interested in astronomy. There are people who will expect to see Saturn as big as the moon in the sky
These featured images are generated by AI. I use them to purposely show how unreliable AI is when depicting astronomical events. Many times when I ask AI to generate a sky image, it includes the moon, sometimes multiple moon images, when it is not in the description to generate the image. The articles routinely describe the planets as starlike and the optical instruments needed to see them up close. Thanks for reading and your comment.