This month’s planets
Mercury will glide past Jupiter and Saturn, which remain close together after their great conjunction last year
Our Planet of the Month for January is the smallest planet of them all: Mercury, the closest world to the Sun. As Mercury is the nearest planet to the Sun it never strays far from it in the sky. We never see it shining brightly in a dark sky, only for a short time after sunset or before sunrise.
Because of this proximity, many people – even amateur astronomers – have never seen this fascinating world, but by mid-month it will be very well placed for observation by everyone, looking like a copper-coloured star low in the southwest after sunset.
The good news is that although Mercury will be too close to the Sun to be seen at the very start of the month, as January progresses Mercury will get easier to see as it climbs higher in the twilight sky and further away from the Sun.