Thursday, Jan. 1 – Full moon passes Elnath
In the eastern sky on Thursday evening, Jan. 1, the bright, nearly full moon will shine very close to the bright star Elnath, which marks the northern horn tip of Taurus, the Bull and also part of the ring-like shape of Auriga, the Charioteer.
During the night, the moon’s steady eastward orbital motion around Earth, by about its own diameter every hour, will carry it past the star. Observers located in a zone extending eastward across northern South America and across the South Atlantic Ocean can use binoculars (orange circle) and backyard telescopes to watch the moon occult Elnath. Exact timings will vary by location, so use an app like Starry Night to determine the precise times where you are. In Lima, Peru the dark strip along the leading edge of the moon will cover Elnath at 7:06 p.m. Peru Time (which converts to 00:06 GMT on Friday). The star will emerge from behind the moon’s opposite, bright limb at 8:17 p.m. PET. For best results, start watching a few minutes ahead of each time noted.
Saturday, Jan. 3 – Full Wolf supermoon near Jupiter
The January full moon will occur on Saturday, Jan. 3 at 5:03 a.m. EST, 2:03 a.m. PST, or 10:03 GMT while the moon is shining in Gemini near Jupiter.
This full moon is known as the Wolf Moon, Old Moon, and Moon after Yule. The Indigenous Ojibwe people of the Great Lakes region call it Gichi-manidoo Giizis, the “Great Spirit Moon”, a time to honor the silence, and recognize one’s place within all of Great Mystery’s creatures. (You might recall that name from hearing or singing Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha.) The Cree of North America call the January full moon Opawahcikanasis, the “Frost Exploding Moon”, when trees crackle from the extreme cold temperatures. Full moons during the winter months climb as high in the sky at midnight as the summer noonday sun, and cast shadows in the same locations.
This full moon will occur 1.5 days after perigee, making it the final supermoon in a series of four and appearing about 5% brighter and 13% larger than average (red circle).
Saturday, Jan. 3 – Earth at perihelion
On Saturday, Jan. 3 at 12 p.m. EST, or 9 a.m. PST, or 17:00 GMT, Earth will reach perihelion, its minimum distance from the sun for the year. At perihelion, Earth will be 91.40 million miles (or 147.10 million km) from our star, which is about 1.67% closer than our mean distance of 1.0 Astronomical Unit. As winter-chilled Northern Hemisphere dwellers will attest, daily temperatures on Earth are not controlled by our proximity to the sun, but by the number of hours of daylight we experience.
Saturday, Jan. 3 – Bright moon joins Jupiter (all night)
At dusk on Saturday, Jan. 3, look to the east for the brilliant planet Jupiter shining several finger widths to the lower right (or celestial south) of the bright full moon — cozy enough for them to share the view in binoculars (orange circle). The duo will make a lovely photo opportunity when composed with some nice foreground scenery. As the moon and Jupiter climb higher, the bright stars of winter will appear around them, particularly Pollux and Castor, the bright twins of Gemini on their upper left (celestial north). Both stars are part of the huge winter hexagon asterism. The moon and Jupiter will culminate due south around 12:30 a.m. local time and then set in the west before dawn on Sunday morning. By then, the diurnal rotation of the sky will lift the moon above Jupiter.
Saturday, Jan. 3 – Quadrantids meteor shower peak
Named for a now-defunct constellation called the Mural Quadrant, the Quadrantids meteor shower runs from Dec. 26 to Jan. 16 every year. Quadrantids meteors always radiate from a point in the sky beyond the tip of the Big Dipper’s handle. This shower commonly produces bright fireballs because it is produced by rocky particles dropped by an asteroid designated 2003EH.
The Quadrantids’ most intense period, when up to 50 to 100 meteors per hour can appear during a short, 6-hour window, will occur on Saturday, Jan. 3 at 22:00 GMT, which converts to early evening in the Eastern Americas. At that time, the shower’s radiant will be close to the northern horizon, halving the number of meteors we see. The bright full moon shining all night long will also reduce the number of Quadrantids seen this year.
Sunday, Jan. 4 – Moon buzzes the Beehive
When the bright, waning gibbous moon rises in the east after dusk on Sunday, Jan. 4, it will be positioned a thumb’s width to the upper left (about 1.3 degrees to the celestial north) of the large open star cluster in Cancer known as the Beehive, Praesepe, and Messier 44. Both objects will fit within the field of view of binoculars (orange circle), although the bright moonlight will obscure the cluster’s dimmer stars. To better see the “bees”, which will be scattered across an area more than twice the size of the moon, hide the moon just beyond the upper left edge of the binoculars’ field of view.
Monday, Jan. 5 – Gibbous moon over Regulus
When you catch sight of the bright, waning gibbous moon climbing the eastern sky on Monday evening, Jan. 5, look for the very bright star Regulus twinkling about a palm’s width below it. That star, the brightest one in Leo, marks the heart of the mythical lion.
While the moon and Regulus are crossing the sky together all night long, the diurnal rotation of the sky will lift Regulus to the moon’s upper left by the time they descend the western sky ahead of sunrise on Tuesday morning. Hours later, the moon’s eastward orbital motion, by its own diameter every hour (green line), will carry it closer to Regulus and produce an occultation that will be visible in a zone extending from eastern Kazakhstan, across northern China and most of Russia, northeastern Melanesia and Japan on Tuesday evening. In Beijing, China, the leading lit portion of the moon will cover Regulus at 11:47 p.m. Chinese Standard Time. The star will emerge from behind the moon’s dark limb at 12:28 a.m. CST. Lunar occultations are perfectly safe to view with unaided eyes and through binoculars and telescopes.
The timing varies by location, so use an app like Starry Night or Sky Safari to look up the occultation timings for your location and be sure to start watching a few minutes ahead of time.
Wednesday, Jan. 7: Stellar halo around Mirfak
On early-January evenings, the constellation of Perseus is overhead. The outer rim of our Milky Way galaxy runs through Perseus’ stars, filling its territory with rich star clusters. The largest of them surrounds his brightest star, Mirfak, or Alpha Persei. That elderly yellow supergiant star has evolved out of its blue phase and is now fusing helium into carbon and oxygen in its core. Melotte 20, also known as the Alpha Persei Moving Group and the Perseus OB3 Association, is a collection of 100 or so young, massive, hot B- and A-class stars sprinkled over several finger widths (or 3 degrees) of the sky around Mirfak.
The cluster can be seen with unaided eyes, but it’s especially dazzling in binoculars (orange circle). Its stars are approximately 600 light-years from the sun and are moving as a group — Mirfak along with them.
Thursday, Jan. 8 – The stars of Orion’s Belt
The three stars in Orion’s belt may look the same, but they are actually quite different under closer inspection. Magnitude 1.85 Alnitak (Zeta Orionis) on the left and magnitude 1.65 Alnilam (Epsilon Orionis) in the center shine at almost the same brightness, though Alnilam is almost twice as far away. Magnitude 2.4 Mintaka (Delta Orionis) on Orion’s right hip is quite a bit fainter. Alnitak is blue, while the other two stars are whiter in color. In a telescope, Alnitak (Arabic for “the Girdle”) is revealed to be a very tightly spaced double star, while Mintaka is a more widely spaced pair.
Using binoculars (orange circle) look for a large, upright, S-shaped asterism of dim stars in the space between Alnilam and Mintaka. Sigma Orionis, the medium-bright star sitting less than a finger’s width to the lower right (or 0.8 degrees southwest of) Alnitak, is a beautiful little grouping of ten or more stars when viewed under magnification.
Friday, Jan. 9 – Jupiter peaks at opposition (all night)
On Friday night, Jan. 9, in the Americas, Jupiter will reach opposition for 2026 while it gleams brightly near the star Wasat in Central Gemini.
At opposition, planets rise in the east at sunset and cross the sky all night long before setting in the west at sunrise. Jupiter will be at its minimum distance from Earth for this year of 393.4 million miles (633.1 million km) or 35 light-minutes, boosting its brilliance to magnitude -2.7. Viewed in a telescope (inset), the planet will display a generous, 46.6 arc-seconds-wide disk striped with brown equatorial bands. Around opposition, Jupiter and its four large Galilean satellites frequently eclipse and occult one another. Telescope owners can watch them cast their round, black shadows on the planet — singly and in pairs — and the Great Red Spot crossing the planet’s disk for a few hours on every second or third night.
Saturday, Jan. 10 – Third quarter moon
The moon will complete three-quarters of its orbit around Earth, measured from the previous new moon, on Saturday, Jan. 10 at 10:48 a.m. EST, 7:48 a.m. PST, or 15:48 GMT. At its third (or last) quarter phase the moon is half-illuminated, on its western, sunward side.
It will rise around midnight local time and then remain visible until it sets in the western daytime sky during the early afternoon. Early risers on Saturday morning will see Virgo’s brightest star Spica, sparkling to the moon’s left (or celestial east). Third quarter moons are positioned ahead of the Earth in our trip around the sun. About 3½ hours later, Earth will occupy that same location in space. The week of dark, moonless evenings that follow this phase is ideal for observing the fainter objects in the night sky.
Monday, Jan. 12 – Watch Algol brighten
On January evenings, Perseus is high in the eastern sky after dusk. The star Algol, also designated Beta Persei, marks the glowing eye of Medusa from Greek mythology, and is among the most accessible variable stars for skywatchers.
During a ten-hour period that repeats every 2 days, 20 hours, and 49 minutes, Algol dims noticeably and re-brightens by about a third while a fainter companion star with an orbit nearly edge-on to Earth crosses in front of its much brighter primary, reducing the total light output we perceive. Algol normally shines at magnitude 2.1, similar to the nearby star Almach (aka Gamma Andromedae). But when fully dimmed, Algol’s brightness of magnitude 3.4 is almost identical to Rho Persei (or Gorgonea Tertia or ρ Per), the star sitting just two finger widths to Algol’s right (or 2.25 degrees to the celestial south). On Monday evening, Jan. 12 at 5:48 p.m. EST (or 22:48 GMT for other time zones), Algol will display its minimum brightness while it is shining nearly overhead above the very bright star Capella. Algol will steadily brighten while it passes the zenith and then begins to descend in the western sky, returning to full intensity by 10:48 p.m. EST (or 03:48 GMT on Tuesday).
Wednesday, Jan. 14 – Crescent moon approaches Antares and Messier 4 (predawn)
In the southeastern sky on Wednesday morning, Jan. 14, the waning crescent moon will shine prettily below the claw stars of Scorpius and just to the upper right (or celestial west) of the bright, reddish star Antares that marks the scorpion’s heart. If your sky is clear, use binoculars (orange circle) to view the duo. Keep an eye out for the large, faint fuzzy patch of the globular star cluster Messier 4 (or M4) that sits a thumb’s width to Antares’ right. One of the largest and brightest of its kind, it is composed of thousands of stars bound together by mutual gravity, 7,000 light-years away from our solar system. Before dawn on Thursday morning, observers in central Australia can safely watch the moon occult Antares.
Friday, Jan. 16 – The spectacular Orion Nebula
The bright stars of mighty Orion, the Hunter, shine in the southeastern sky during the evening in early January.
Orion’s sword, which covers an area of 1.5 by 1 degrees (about the end of your thumb held up at arm’s length), descends from Orion’s three-starred belt. The patch of light in the middle of the sword is the spectacular and bright nebula known as the Orion Nebula (or Messier 42 and NGC 1976). While binoculars (orange circle) will reveal the fuzzy nature of this object, medium-to-large aperture backyard telescopes will show complex veils of gas and dark dust lanes, and the Trapezium Cluster, a tight clump of young stars that formed from the nebula’s collapsing gas. The nebula and its internal stars are located approximately 1,350 light-years from the sun in the Orion arm of our Milky Way galaxy.
Saturday, Jan. 17 – The lost jewel of Orion’s Sword
To the unaided eye, a patch of brightness below the Orion Nebula defines the southern tip of Orion’s sword. The area is dominated by the bright, magnitude 2.75 star named Nair al Saif, and sometimes called Hatysa, Iota Orionis, and The Lost Jewel of Orion. Just to the lower right (or 8 arc-minutes to the southwest) of Nair al Saif is a pair of magnitude 4 stars named HIP26199 and HIP26197. They are almost 3,000 light-years from the sun and shine with an intense blue light indicative of their extreme surface temperatures.
Astronomers estimate that those two stars are approximately 40,000 times as luminous as our sun. The jewel is also readily seen in binoculars. In a backyard telescope, the entire area is surrounded by faint nebulosity that will be enhanced by a nebula filter.
Sunday, Jan. 18 – New moon in Sagittarius
The moon will reach its new phase on Sunday, Jan. 18 at 2:52 p.m. EST, 11:52 a.m. PST, or 19:52 GMT.
At that time, our natural satellite will be located in eastern Sagittarius and 4 degrees south of the sun. While it’s new, the moon is traveling between Earth and the sun. Since sunlight can only reach the far side of the moon, and the moon is in the same region of the sky as the sun, the moon becomes unobservable from anywhere on Earth for about a day (except during a solar eclipse). On the evenings following the new moon phase, Earth’s planetary partner will return to shine in the western sky after sunset.
Wednesday, Jan. 21 – Mare Crisium (evening)
On Wednesday evening, Jan. 21, the dark oval of Mare Crisium will be framed inside the appealing crescent of the young moon. Several evenings after the new moon phase every month, this 345-mile (556 km) diameter basin becomes easy to see using your unaided eyes, binoculars, and any telescope. It is located near the eastern edge of the moon, just north of the moon’s equator (the up-down red curve). The wobble of the moon, known as lunar libration, shifts Mare Crisium higher and lower, and closer and farther from the moon’s edge at various times.
Thursday, Jan. 22 – Crescent moon meets Saturn and Neptune
As the sky darkens after sunset on Thursday, Jan. 22, look halfway up the southwestern sky for the prominent, creamy-yellow dot of Saturn shining a palm’s width to the upper left (or 6 degrees to the celestial east) of the waxing crescent moon.
Once the sky is fully dark, use binoculars (orange circle) or a backyard telescope to see the faint, blue speck of Neptune positioned a thumb’s width above Saturn. The trio will drop below the rooftops in the southwest after mid-evening.
Saturday, Jan. 24 – View Rupes Altai (all night)
On Saturday night, Jan. 24, the curved terminator on the moon will fall just to the upper left (or lunar west) of a large, curved escarpment on the moon known as Rupes Altai, making that feature especially easy to see with sharp eyes and through binoculars and telescopes.
The cliff, which climbs up to 0.6 miles or 1 km above the lunar surface, is actually part of the rim of ancient Mare Nectaris. Its curve runs parallel to the edge of that large, dark basin, which will appear to its upper right (lunar northeast), though partly in shadow. Watch for the large crater named Piccolomini straddling the southeastern end of the cliff. Rupes Altai is highlighted every lunar month when the waxing moon is about 5 days past new and again when the waning moon is approaching third quarter.
Sunday, Jan. 25 – The lunar X (peaks at 6 p.m. EST)
Several times a year, for a few hours near the moon’s first quarter phase, patterns on the moon called the Lunar X and Lunar V become visible in strong binoculars and backyard telescopes (inset). The Lunar X is located on the terminator south of the crater La Caille, about one third of the way up from the southern pole of the moon (at 2° East, 24° South). The “V” is located near the crater Ukert (at 1° East, 14° North). On Sunday, Jan. 25, those letter shapes are predicted to start developing by 4:30 p.m. EST (or 11:30 GMT) in a twilit sky for the Eastern time zone, peak in intensity around 6 p.m. EST (or 23:00 GMT), and then disappear by 7:30 p.m. EST. The Lunar X and V will be observable in any time zone on Earth where the moon is visible, especially in a dark sky, between those hours.
Monday, Jan. 26 – First quarter moon
The moon will complete the first quarter of its 29.53-day trip around Earth on Monday, Jan. 26 at 04:47 GMT, which converts to Sunday evening at 11:47 p.m. EST and 8:47 p.m. PST in the Americas.
At first quarter, the moon’s 90-degree angle from the sun causes us to see it half-illuminated on its eastern side among the faint stars of Pisces. First quarter moons always rise around midday and set around midnight, so they are also visible in the afternoon daytime sky. The evenings surrounding first quarter are the best ones for seeing the lunar terrain when it is dramatically lit by low-angled sunlight, especially along the terminator, the pole-to-pole boundary that separates the moon’s lit and dark hemispheres.
Tuesday, Jan. 27 – Bright moon shines near the Pleiades (evening)
On Tuesday evening, Jan. 27, in the Americas, the waxing gibbous moon will shine a short distance to the left (or celestial northeast) of the stars in the prominent Pleiades star cluster, which is also known as Messier 45, Subaru, and the Seven Sisters.
For those viewing the meetup later or from more westerly time zones, the moon’s eastward orbital motion will carry it farther from the cluster while the diurnal rotation of the sky lifts the moon above the Pleiades. While the glare of the moon will hide the cluster’s stars from your unaided eyes in a fully dark sky, viewing the encounter during evening twilight, especially through binoculars (orange circle) or a backyard telescope, will allow you to see them better. The blue nebulosity around the Pleiades stars is only apparent with a very large telescope or a long exposure image.
Wednesday, Jan. 28 – Mercury climbs past Venus
For a short time after sunset on the evenings surrounding Wednesday, Jan. 28, the innermost planet Mercury will shine close to much brighter Venus just above the western horizon.
On Tuesday, binoculars (orange circle) will show Mercury a finger’s width below (or 1 degree to the celestial SSW) of Venus. On Wednesday and Thursday, Mercury will be located less than a finger’s width to Venus’ lower left (or celestial south) and to Venus’ left, respectively. On the following days, the speedy planet will climb up and away from Venus (red path), but they will remain close enough to share the view in binoculars until about February 8.
Be sure to wait until the sun has completely set before turning any optical aids towards the western horizon.
Thursday, Jan. 29 – Mare Imbrium mountains (evening)
Thursday, Jan. 29, will offer a fine opportunity to view the spectacular mountain chains, actually segments of the old basin’s rim, that encircle the rim of Mare Imbrium. The most northerly arc of mountains is the Lunar Alps, or Montes Alpes.
Binoculars or a telescope will reveal a slash cutting through them called the Alpine Valley, or Vallis Alpes, where the moon’s crust has dropped between parallel faults. To the lower right (lunar southeast) of the Alps are the Caucasus Mountains, or Montes Caucasus. That mountain range disappears under a lava-flooded zone connecting Mare Imbrium with Mare Serenitatis to the southeast. The southeastern edge of Mare Imbrium is bordered by the lengthy Apennine Mountains, or Montes Apenninus. They sink out of sight near the prominent crater Eratosthenes. The Montes Carpatus ring the south, near crater Copernicus. On the opposite side of the mare is the distinctive, round Sinus Iridum, the Bay of Rainbows.
Friday, Jan. 30 – Bright moon joins Jupiter in Gemini
In the eastern sky on Friday evening, Jan. 30, the bright, waxing gibbous moon will shine in central Gemini above the brilliant planet Jupiter.
The moon and Jupiter will cross the sky all night long while the moon’s orbital motion carries it directly towards Gemini’s brightest star, Pollux. In the western sky before dawn on Saturday morning in the Americas, the moon will be aligned between Jupiter and Pollux, making a spectacular visual and photo opportunity.
Read more & view images at: https://www.space.com/16149-night-sky.html