Lunar Occultation of the Saturn (Mar 02, am).  There will be a grazing occultation of Saturn by the Moon on the morning of March 2nd.   The moon is leading with its darkest limb forward.  Times from Aberdeen, 
Saturn disappears  02:26hUT 
Saturn appears 02:45h UT

Total Lunar Eclipse (Mar 03).  Approximate timings :

09:30 pm - partial eclipse starts 
10:45 pm - totality starts 
11:20 pm - mid eclipse   (23:30h UT)
midnight - totality ends 
01:10 am - partial eclipse ends

Young Crescent Moon (Mar 19, sunset).  There should be an excellent opportunity to attempt a viewing of a very young crescent moon around sunset on March 19th. Low horizon and clear skies will be needed.

Twilight Mercury (~ Feb 07).  If twilight skies are clear in the SW Mercury may be viewed shortly after sunset between around 3rd and 15th Feb.  Best date will be 7th February when the planet will lie around 18 degrees east of the Sun.    Use Venus as a marker and look between it and and the position where Sun has just set and you just might glimpse Mercury.

Saturn at Opposition (Feb 10).  Saturn is at opposition on February 10,  but is well placed for viewing around midnight throughout the month. Magnitude 0.0 / Size 20" . It is situated around 8 degrees to the right of Regulus in Leo. 

Lunar Occultation of the Pleiades (Feb 23).  The Moon (at 1st quarter) will occult the Pleiades open star cluster over the night of Feb 23-24.  The moon is leading with its darkest limb forward and thus provides the ideal situation for observing the moment of occultation.  The various bright stars of Pleiades will disappear between 22:40 and 23:15pm, reappearing between 23:30 and 00:10 

Bright comet,  C/2006 P1 (McNaught), plunging towards the Sun  (Jan 01 to Jan 15).  Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught) will approach to only 0.17 AU distance from the Sun at closest approach on January 13th  - this is much closer than Mercury (0.38 AU).  Before then the comet will be visible to the naked eye low in the western sky just after sunset (to the right of Venus) and in the eastern sky, again very low in the sky,  just before sunrise.  Comet is expected to reach +1 to +0 mag in brightness. As the comet approaches the sun it will become more and more difficult to spot, however it should become easy to see on SOHO's coronagraph images. 

 Comet C/2006 P1 [McNaught] around 16:45 UT January 10th 2007 
(Picture by Derek Ryan, taken from Prop of Yythsie, near Tarves, Aberdeenshire)
[ More Pictures 1, 2, 3 ] 
[ View Phil Hart's pictures of Comet McNaught from Melborne, Australia ]
|  Comet McNaught Photo Gallery on Spaceweather.Com | 

Mercury, Venus and Crescent Moon in early evening sky (Jan 20).  Mercury and Venus will be in SW sky during the latter part of the month, shortly after sunset. They're joined by a crescent moon on 20th January.

Moon passes over Pleiades in Taurus during early hours of 4th December. Conditions will be tricky as the nearly full moon with outshine the 'Seven Sisters'.  However the left hand limb will have a thin sliver of dark terminator and will be the best location to observe occulations with binocules or telescope.  The 6 brightest Pleiades stars 'disappear' at times between 02:55 and 04:50h UT (GMT).

Mercury, Mars & Jupiter together in SE morning sky. Look SE on  morning of 10th Dec,  at or just before sunrise / 08:15 - 08:45 am and you might catch these 3 planets in close proximity,  just 6 degrees above the horizon. 

Geminid meteor shower is active between 7-15th December, with peak around 5:00am GMT on 14th December. The Geminid radiant is just north of the star Caster in constellation of Gemini. 

Picture of  Geminid Meteor by Alisdair Farquhar  14-Dec-2006 | Larger picture 

Leonid meteor shower produced by debris from comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. Active between 15-20th November. This year there is a predicted peak around 04:45hUT on morning of 19th November, with potential rates up to 100 meteors per hour. 

Comet C/2006 M4 (Swan) moving through Hercules and into Aquila, passing within 3 degrees of Aquila over 28-30 November. 
Ephemeris for C/2006 M4 (www.ast.cam.ac.uk).

Saturn can be found in the dawn sky around 7 degrees WNW of Regulus in Leo. Rings are tilted at around 13 degrees. Look out for the Moon passing 2 degrees north of Saturn on the morning of 16th October.

Orionid meteor shower produced by debris from Halley's Comet is active throughout the second half of the month, with a radiant midway between the constellations of Orion and Gemini. Maximum is around 20-22 October (up to 15 meteors per hour). 

Comet C/2006 M4 (Swan) is expected to reach around magnitude +8 to +6 by mid October as it passes through constellations of Canes Venatici, Bootes & Corona Borealis when it then enters into Hercules at month's end.  Should be visible with Binoculars.
Ephemeris for C/2006 M4 (www.ast.cam.ac.uk).

CCD Image of C/2006 M4 (Swan)  - (picture by AAS Member, David Richards)

A partial lunar eclipse occurs on 7th September. Moon rises partially eclipsed on the 7th, so look east just before 8pm for this minor astronomical alignment event. Just the top of the Moon darkened by the Earth's shadow. 

Photo of partial Lunar Eclipse on 7th September
(picture by AAS Member, Darren Moody)

Uranus reaches opposition on 5th September. Lying in Aquarius. the easiest way to find Uranus is with a GOTO telescope.  

CCD Image of Uranus on 8th September 
(picture by AAS Member, David.Richards, Jul 2006)

Neptune will be at opposition on 11th August and may be worth hunting down if you have a reasonable telescope (setting circles or a goto mount will help). It lies close to Iota Capricornia.  At 8th magnitude, it will appear star-like through binoculars or as a very small bluish disk through telescope (at 150x).  From Aberdeen it will lie due south (altitude of 17 degrees) at around 2:10 am BST on 11th/12th August.

The Perseid Meteor Shower peaks around 12th-13th August. A waning gibbous moon may swamp all but the brightest meteors.

The last 10 days of August will be best for deep sky objects this month as the night lengthens and the moon will be out of the way. The Summer Triangle stars Vega, Denab and Altair are more or less due south in late evening. Look out for the bright summer Milky Way which can be streaming from Cygnus high overhead, down through Aquila and Scutum.  

Comet 4P/Faye passes through Pisces during August and will pass close to M74 around August 29 (ESE sky, 34 degrees Altitude, midnight BST).  Likely to be +13 magnitude at beginning of month but expected to bright to +11.5 to +12 by end of August (a telescope will be needed).

CCD Images of 4P/Faye taken over a 5 hour period (picture by AAS Member, David Richards, Jul 2006)

Jupiter appears to stand still in Libra on the 6th of the month, and moves very little during July. Sitting above the southern horizon as it gets dark, the planet is still very bright. As the night wears on it moves to the south-west, setting around 1.30am at the start of the month, but well before midnight by the end.   May be worth taking a look with a telescope and try to spot the Great Red Spot and the currently adjacent Red Spot Jr. Sky & Telescope article