SkyEye

The Calendar

The Solar System

The word planet is derived from the Greek word for 'wanderer'. Unlike the background stars, planets seem to move around the sky, keeping mostly to a narrow track called the ecliptic, the path of the Sun across the stars. Dwarf planets and small solar-system bodies, including comets, are not so constrained, often moving far above or below the ecliptic.

Sun Ophiuchus → Sagittarius

Although Ophiuchus is not a member of the zodiac, the ecliptic passes through it.

Mercury Sagittarius

This tiny planet continues to gain altitude above the western horizon in the evening but after greatest elongation east on 11 December, descends back towards the Sun, disappearing before inferior conjunction on 28 December.

Venus Sagittarius → Capricornus

The evening star has put on a wonderful show for southern hemisphere observers but now Venus declines slightly in altitude. From the north, however, the opposite is true and the bright planet climbs higher in the evening sky.

Mars Capricornus → Aquarius

Mars stays one step ahead of the Sun, not setting until mid- to late evening, and rapidly closing in on Neptune in the sky.

Jupiter Virgo

This bright planet is a morning sky object, now rising well ahead of the Sun.

Saturn Ophiuchus

At conjunction with the Sun on the tenth day of the month, the ringed planet is lost in the solar glare.

Uranus Pisces

This faint planet, the most distant object in the solar system visible to the naked eye, sets around midnight.

Neptune Aquarius

A small telescope is necessary to view the most distant planet in the solar system but you will need to look for it in the early evening as it sets well before midnight. It is at east quadrature at the beginning of the month.