SkyEye

The Calendar

The Quadrantid meteor shower benefits from dark skies this year. Venus switches horizons, appearing as the morning star at the beginning of the month and as the evening star at the end.

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 Sagittarius → Capricornus

Mercury Sagittarius → Capricornus → Sagittarius

Mercury is visible in the west after sunset at the beginning of the year but is soon sinking toward the horizon. Its smallest greatest elongation east of the year (only 19.2°) occurs on 7 January. One week later it reaches a stationary point in right ascension and enters into retrograde motion. The following day the tiny planet is at perihelion. Mercury is at inferior conjunction on 23 January and reappears in the east at dawn by the end of the month.

Venus Sagittarius

Venus is low in the west at the outset of 2022 and soon disappears, undergoing inferior conjunction on 9 January. It quickly reappears in the east before sunrise, the morning star until early October. Venus reaches perihelion on 23 January and ceases retrograde motion six days later.

Earth and Moon

This is an excellent year for observing the Quadrantids as there will be no moonlight to obscure the sight of the meteors. Earth comes to perihelion at around the same time. The Full Moon in mid-January is a Micro Moon, the Full Moon with the smallest apparent angular diameter.

Mars Ophiuchus → Sagittarius

Following last year's conjunction, Mars is a morning sky object for at least the first half of the year. It passes half a degree north of the open star cluster NGC 6530 and M8, the Lagoon Nebula on 26 January. The following day it reaches its maximum southerly declination for the year.

Jupiter Aquarius

Jupiter is visible in the evening sky but is setting near the end of astronomical twilight by the last day of the month.

Saturn Capricornus

The ringed planet begins the year at its maximum southerly declination and it maximum ring opening (17.6°). Saturn is an evening sky object but is soon lost to view low in twilit skies.

Uranus Aries

This sixth-magnitude planet backs into 2022, not returning to direct motion (in right ascension) until mid-January. At east quadrature on the penultimate day of the month, Uranus is an evening sky object, best viewed from northern latitudes where it doesn't set until after midnight.

Neptune Aquarius

A small telescope is necessary to view the most distant planet in the solar system. The eighth-magnitude planet is at its maximum declination south at the beginning of the year. It is visible in the evening sky, setting by mid- to early evening by the end of the month.