Mercury and Venus, Comet Lovejoy this week

5:40 PM, Jan 9. Venus (brighter) and Mercury near Fairfield PA

We're looking forward to getting our Spring 2015 shows going with "The Sky this Month" on Jan 25 (4:00 PM) and January 27 (7:00 PM). Meanwhile, here are a couple of sky sights to be aware of.

• Comet Lovejoy is outperforming expectations, easily visible in binoculars now, though it will soon begin to fade. Finder chart and more info here. I saw it for the first time 1/7 with 8x40 binocs.
• Venus and Mercury are close in the evening sky just after sunset. They'll be closest on January 11, after which Venus will continue to climb while Mercury drops back into the sun's glare over the next two weeks.