Our innermost planet MERCURY starts off 2022 in Capricornus reaching Greatest Eastern Elongation (GEE) on January 7, (-0.6 mag) favoring southern observers. Because the planet's orbital period is 87.96 days, each year this swiftly moving planet will generally cross between the Earth and Sun three times. On January 12-13, Mercury will come within 4 deg. of Saturn, the first of two conjunctions early this year. Fleet-footed observers will have to move fast at sunset to catch these two planets, Mercury at 0.0 outshines Saturn at +0.7. Mercury will begin to disappear in the evening sky heading toward inferior conjunction on January 23, reappearing in the morning sky in a position favoring southern observers. Greatest Elongation West (GEW) will occur on February 16 when Mercury is shining at 0.0 mag. Mercury will rejoin Saturn again on March 2, this time coming within 45" of the ringed planet, however this cannot be observed from the northern hemisphere. It will be in superior conjunction on April 2, therefore not visible. On April 29, Mercury reaches GEE setting early in the evening sky near the Pleiades cluster. On May 2, Mercury will be joined by the crescent Moon. May 21 is the date for Mercury's next inferior conjunction. Mercury reaches GEW again on June 16 and will be at +0.6 mag. On July 16, Mercury will reach superior conjunction. The next Mercury event is GEE on August 27, when the planet will be the farthest from the sun that it gets this year, 27.3 deg. away. Its disk will be 50% illuminated. This apparition favors the southern observers. Mercury again reaches inferior conjunction on September 23. On October 24, Mercury will be occulted by the waning crescent Moon over northwestern North America. Don't get excited though, it occurs during daylight morning hours. Mercury reaches superior conjunction again on November 8. Returning to the evening sky, Mercury joins Venus passing 2.3 degrees below, too close to the sun to be observed. On December 21, Mercury's last GEE occurs, with the planet shining at -0.6 mag. Another conjunction of Mercury and Venus occurs on December 28-29 when Mercury is 1.4 deg N of Venus.

Earth's "sister" planet, VENUS opens the year in the morning sky in the constellation of Sagittarius but continues its plunge into the Sun for inferior conjunction on January 9. The planet Venus and Earth have a resonance where every 8 years, Venus returns to a position fairly close to the one it had previously. Venus will pass between the Earth and the Sun five times in these eight years. On February 13, Venus will be at conjunction with Mars - - a show seen best from southern latitudes. After inferior conjunction Venus will re-emerge in the morning sky later in the month. Venus reaches GEW (46 deg) on March 20, when it is at -4.4 mag. On March 28, Venus will make a nice grouping with Mars and Saturn as the waning Moon shows up in the early morning sky. On April 27, Venus meets up with Neptune, the two planets only 14" apart in Earth's sky. (A telescope will be required!) May 27, Venus will come within a degree of the crescent Moon not visible from North America. On June 11, Venus and Uranus will be 1.5 deg. apart and also not easy to see in the summer twilight. On July 22, Venus is in conjunction with Mercury. Wow, once again this year, lots of planets are close together in the sky! No need to fear though, the planets always hang together in the solar system. Fading on the morning horizon, Venus reaches superior conjunction on October 22. Our brilliant sister will return to the evening sky, late in the year. On December 26, Venus will be at aphelion. Late in the month, Venus is in conjunction with Mercury as described above.

Mars rings in 2022 at +1.5 mag. cruising through the stars of the constellation of Ophiuchus. To my eyes the tiny disk of Mars is much more red than the large disk at opposition. At mid-month Venus bursts on to the scene and gives no doubt as to who is the queen of the sky. Mars won't mind however, but continue its path into Sagittarius. Mars beats past the lid of the teapot (Sagittarius) only to burst into Capricornus on March 5. Mars will meet up with Venus on March 12, passing 4 deg. N. of the dazzling planet, during daylight hours for North American observers. Compare Mars at +1.5 mag to Venus at -4.6 mag as they put on a show in the early morning sky. Saturn will join Venus and Mars in mid-March, the three planets will form a triangle in the sky, watch as the shape changes daily. On March 28, they are joined by the waning crescent Moon.

Venus will move away from the outer planets, leaving Mars to continue closing the gap between it and Saturn until they reach conjunction on April 4 when they come within 0.3 deg. of each other in Earth's morning sky. Of course Mars doesn't have time for such dilly-dallying and soon leaves Saturn far behind, crossing the internationally-recognized constellation boundary and into Aquarius on April 11. In mid-April, Mars will be midway between Venus and Jupiter at their close conjunction (.2 deg. apart!) and Saturn. By May 10, the planets will be well separated, stretching across the morning sky (Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn.) To see them all, we'll need to get up early in the northern hemisphere as mid-spring twilight is short and Mars will be at +.8 mag. Now Mars will approach Jupiter (-2.2 mag), passing .6 deg S. of the gas giant on May 29 in the constellation of Pisces. Around May 11, the the disk of Mars will be 6"(arc-seconds). On June 3rd, Mercury will join the other planets in the morning sky, probably very hard to see from a northern latitude because of summer twilight. This is best observed from tropical latitudes. Mars reaches its perihelion on June 21 when it is located as close to the Sun as it will get its orbit. Martian winter opens in the northern hemisphere and the southern summer begins. On June 22, Mars will be occulted by the gibbous Moon, visible from a few South Pacific islands.

Mars moves into Aries on July 8. A close conjunction with the Moon occurs on July 21, causes a lunar occultation visible from Japan, northeastern Russia, northwestern Alaska, Svalbard and N. Greenland. The Moon will be just past last quarter. On August 1, Mars catches up with the planet Uranus, passing 1.3 deg. S. of the distant gas giant. Mars will be at +.2 mag while Uranus is a mere +5.8 requiring a telescope to view both planets. They will be 13 deg. away from the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus. Mars crosses into Taurus on August 9th and remains in the constellation for the rest of the year. The red planet will pass below the Pleiades cluster from August 17-19, this should be fun to watch with the naked eye. On August 21, Mars will reach 0.0 mag and rise before midnight. Mars and Earth will reach Western Quadrature when they make a 90-degree angle with the Sun. In September, Mars will grow brighter from -0.1 at the beginning of the month to -0.4 at month's end. The disk will grow from 9.8" to 11.9". It will be glowing brighter than the first magnitude star Aldebaran (.85 mag), and pass 4 deg. to the north of it on September 9. Aldebaran and the nearby Hyades clusters will provide an excellent backdrop for Mars. Mars continues its path through Taurus, also it begins to slow noticeably, reaching its stationary point on October 30. Mars will turn around in an area between the horns of Taurus made of the bright stars, El Nath and Tianguan where it spends several days. Although Mars has made a long track through Taurus, the red planet turns and slowly makes its way back, continuing retrograde motion through the end of 2022. At this time, Mars will be 14.9" and shine at -1.19 mag.

On December 1, Mars will be at closest approach when it is as close as it will get to planet Earth. At this time, the disk will be 17.2" and the planet will shine at -1.8 mag. On December 9, 2022, Mars will be at opposition from the Sun as viewed from the Earth. Opposition occurs when the planet is in the middle of the constellation of Taurus. Now the planet will be "up" all night rising as the Sun sets, just like the full Moon. This opposition brings a fantastic opportunity, Mars will be occulted by the full Moon! With the Moon and Mars at opposition within 2 hours of each other, what a great lineup of Earth, the Moon, Mars, and the Sun it will be. This maybe a spectacular event for folks in the north as this occultation will be visible from northwestern Mexico, the continental U.S.A., Canada, Greenland, Svalbard, Europe, western Russia and parts of N. Africa. It occurs at 4UT, so for many preparations should be made for the night of December 7. Mars will be visible for many months after opposition, until it reaches superior conjunction in November 2023. The next opposition occurs on January 16, 2025.

The solar system's behemoth planet is the gas giant JUPITER. Jupiter may be the amateurs' favorite planet, as it is observable for 12 months every 13-month period. Its super fast rotation speed, that makes a revolution every 9h 51m, allows observers to study its many features: belts, festoons, giant storms and many other effects that one can't really predict. The planet's largest moons, called the Galilean Moons after their discoverer: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto transit the disk of Jupiter leaving super round black shadows that crawl across the disc. The planet is a favorite target for astrophotographers. In 2022, Jupiter will be as close to Earth as it has been for 70 years, making it tempting to try to see the Galilean Moons with the naked eye, especially if they are far from the brilliant disk. It should be easy to catch some in binoculars--these little dots are bright enough to present disks near opposition. As the year opens, Jupiter is sinking on the western horizon but heading for conjunction with the Sun on March 5, re-emerging late in the month. Afterwards the giant planet will meet up with Mercury (0.1 mag.) on March 21. This will be a daytime conjunction. Starting out in Aquarius, the giant planet slips into Pisces on April 14 where it remains for the rest of the year. If you like to follow the Galilean moons as their shadows cross the disk, 2022 is a good year to track them. Jupiter reaches its first stationary point and begins retrograde motion on July 27. Jupiter will be at opposition on September 26, 2022. It will shine brilliantly at -2.9 when the disk will be 100-percent illuminated. The giant planet will present a large disk at 49.88" - - this year Jupiter won't let that pipsqueak Mars outclass him! Those fabled Moons will be larger than ever, appearing as small disks in a telescope and binoculars. Larger telescopes will reveal slight color differences between them. Ganymede is the brightest at 4.7 mag and Callisto is the faintest at 5.8 mag. Jupiter will reach its second stationary point on November 23 and thereafter will resume its prograde path through Aquarius. At the end of the year, Jupiter will be setting just before midnight.

The last planet to be discussed is the ringed-wonder, gas giant SATURN. The rings are made of ice, dust, and rock orbiting the planet at various distances. This is somewhat like the ridges on a vinyl record album. There is one large gap near the center of them, dividing them into two pieces called "The Cassini Division." This gap can be seen with small telescopes; there are other gaps that can be seen with larger amateur instruments on a clear night. This year Saturn will remain in Capricornus. Saturn will have two conjunctions (although the first does not fit the true astronomical definition of a conjunction) with Mercury early this year, as previously described. Saturn will reach conjunction with the Sun on February 4, and will not be seen until March. Saturn will join Venus and Mars in the early morning sky, the three planets will form an isosceles triangle on March 25. Saturn will be at true astronomical conjunction with Venus on March 29 and at conjunction with Mars on April 4. Saturn reaches its first stationary point on June 4th, going retrograde thereafter. Saturn reaches opposition on August 2 shining at +0.3 mag. The rings will be tilted at 13.9 deg. and the disk will be 18.8". Saturn will arrive at its second stationary point on October 22, then resume its prograde motion through Capricornus. At the end of December, Saturn will set about 4 hours after the Sun, prominent in the early evening sky.

Eclipses for 2022

The 2022 eclipse season starts on April 30 with a partial solar eclipse. The Moon will cover 64 percent of the solar disk. It is in the far south and will only be briefly visible from southern South America. Maximum eclipse is located in the southern ocean. The first lunar eclipse of the year occurs May 16 and is a total lunar eclipse, visible from all of South America and the eastern half of North America. Portions of the eclipse will be visible from parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and Antarctica. At this time the Moon will be located in Libra and be close to perigee so the disk will be larger than average. A partial solar eclipse will occur on October 24, 2022. The partial eclipse will be observable from Europe, northern Africa, the Middle East, and western Asia. At greatest eclipse the Moon will cover 86% of the Solar disk. The second lunar eclipse for 2022 will occur on November 8. It will be a total lunar eclipse occurring when the Moon is closer to apogee. The entire eclipse will be visible from Africa and northeastern Europe. Parts of the eclipse will be visible from Asia, Australia, North America, and Antarctica.

Remember more details on these and other celestial observations are available at What's Up in the Night Sky? every month at Astra's Stargate!

--See You Under the Stars!
Astra for Astra's Almanac