January 2025 Note​s

★  About 90 minutes after Sunset ★

Planets
Every 26 months, like clockwork, the Earth and Mars are close together and this is that time! Mars will be closest to Earth on January 15/16 making it very bright in the sky, as bright as the brightest star, Sirius. Now, Mars will be rising in the east as the Sun is setting and will thus be lower in the eastern sky 90 minutes after sunset. Sirius will be slightly lower than Mars in the southeast. Yes, Mars has a red color cast to it and it will not twinkle like the stars but shine steady. Higher up from Mars is Jupiter, which is brighter than Mars. Sometimes Mars gets as bright as Jupiter but not this time around. Due west is the very bright Venus .

Constellations
Orion is about halfway up the eastern sky with its three belt stars pointing straight down. These three stars are easy to recognize because they are the same brightness, equal distance and form a straight line (not a perfect line but close). There are no other three stars in the sky like them. And, they point downward to the bright star Sirius.