“Saturday evening, January 18: Venus and Saturn will appear nearest to each other. As evening twilight ends at 6:15 p.m. EST, Venus will be 30 degrees above the southwestern horizon with Saturn 2.2 degrees to the lower left. Saturn will set first on the western horizon almost 3 hours later at 9:04 p.m.”

Plus: Saturn’s moon Iapetus is visible, our Moon passes the bright star Spica, and Mars skims south of Pollux in Gemini in the sky this week.

I pick out North America’s celestial highlights for the week ahead (which also apply to mid-northern latitudes in the northern hemisphere).