Four bright planets are conveniently placed for viewing in January's evening sky. By far, the most brilliant is Venus, which dominates the southwest sky for several hours after sundown. Saturn, always a favorite for viewers with telescopes because of its famous ring system, is not far from Venus, though appearing only a fraction as bright.

These two planets will appear closest together — separated by only a couple of degrees — on Jan. 18. Brilliant Jupiter is in our sky for practically the entire night, adding to the luster of the brilliant winter stars and positioned within the zodiacal constellation of Taurus the Bull.

But January belongs to fiery hued Mars, making its closest approach to the Earth for the next six years. Shining just a trifle less than Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, Mars comes to opposition on Jan. 16 and a few days prior to that, on Jan. 13, will be briefly hidden by the full moon across the contiguous United States and southern Canada.

The only bright planet that is out of the evening sky loop is Mercury. It starts 2025 rising about 90 minutes before sunrise in the east-southeast sky, but quickly drops into the bright morning twilight and disappears from view before the end of the second week of January.

In our schedule, remember that when measuring the angular separation between two celestial objects, your clenched fist held at arm's length measures roughly 10-degrees. Here, we present a schedule below which provides some of the best planet viewing times as well directing you as to where to look to see them.

Be sure to check out our best telescopes for viewing planets guide and our more general guides for the best binoculars and the best telescopes. If you're interested in taking your own impressive skywatching images, we have recommendations for the best cameras for astrophotography and the best lenses for astrophotography.