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  • Music.

  • Jane Houston Jones: What's Up for January. Close encounters of the planetary kind.

  • Hello and welcome. I'm Jane Houston Jones at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

  • It's easy and fun to find planets when they're next to the moon.

  • Saturn is visible in the southeastern dawn sky near Virgo's bright white star Spica and the moon on the fifth.

  • And to the left of the moon on the sixth.

  • On the 10th, Venus will be next to the crescent moon before dawn.

  • In the evening sky, catch red Mars low to the horizon.

  • You'll find it to the left of the slender crescent moon on the 12th.

  • Look the next night and you'll see the crescent moon is bigger and above Mars.

  • Jupiter continues to reign supreme this month.

  • So try to join a local star party to see its amazing details through a telescope.

  • You won't need a telescope to see some close encounters with the moon and Jupiter this month.

  • In the early evening of January 10, you'll find Jupiter below the Pleiades, halfway up in the eastern sky.

  • Then, between January 20 and 23, you'll see the moon pass from Jupiter's right to its left.

  • They are less than 1 degree apart on the evening of the 21st.

  • Look at 8 p.m. Pacific or 11 p.m. Eastern to see this close pairing.

  • Meanwhile, you can also find where NASA's Juno, Dawn and even the Voyager spacecraft are

  • against the constellations.

  • Just use NASA's Eyes on the Solar System.

  • To learn about all of NASA's missions, visit w w w dot nasa dot gov.

  • That's all for this month. I'm Jane Houston Jones.

  • Music.

Music.

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