While, Mercury is technically an evening planet, it is not well placed for viewing, except for the Southern Hemisphere.

Just as it dominated the evening sky earlier in the year, Venus is now a standout before dawn. Look to the East about an hour before local sunrise.

Mars is now rises in the late evening in Taurus, near Zeta and Beta Tauri, the two stars that mark the tips of the bull?s horns. At just lightly dimmer than 0 magnitude, it is brighter than any stars nearby. It slips into Gemini at the end of the month.

The largest planet is still bright but is getting progressively lower in the southwestern sky, and is lost altogether from view by the end of the year. Currently it sets in late evening.

Saturn has emerged in the predawn east-northeastern sky, but is very low at the beginning of twilight at the beginning of the month. In the first week it is quite near the bright star Regulus in Leo, both to the lower left of bright Venus.