The Sun sets over the Pacific Ocean in this stunning shot taken from the International Space Station. Earth reaches perihelion, the closest point to the Sun in our year-long elliptical orbit, early this week. Credit: NASA
Friday, January 3
Asteroid 14 Irene reaches opposition at 2 A.M. EST within northwestern Gemini the Twins. The magnitude 9.6 main-belt world is visible roughly all night, from sunset until sunrise, located roughly halfway between the stars Tau (τ) and Epsilon (ε) Geminorum. Irene was the 14th asteroid discovered in the main belt, spotted by John Russell Hind in May 1851. It is a roughly spherical world some 90 miles (150 kilometers) wide.
Additionally, asteroid 2 Pallas is in conjunction with the Sun at 3 A.M. EST, rendering this space rock unobservable for now.
The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks this morning under extremely favorable conditions, with no Moon in the sky. This shower is well-known for producing numerous meteors beyond its peak, so you may likely catch shooting stars associated with it for the next several days as well. You can expect some 25 to 30 meteors per hour early this morning during the peak, with heightened meteor rates likely continuing this evening and into tomorrow morning as well.
The Quadrantids’ radiant lies in the now-defunct constellation Quadrans Muralis, a region of the sky occupied by Boötes. It’s highest in the hours before dawn and sets in the evening hours shortly after the Sun.
Finally, the Moon passes 1.4° south of Venus at 10 A.M. EST. Although neither is visible at that time, you can spot them in the evening sky, now 3.4° apart and 30° high in the south at sunset. The crescent Moon sits to the upper right of blazing magnitude –4.4 Venus, creating a stunning scene that will last for hours. The pair will dominate the early-evening sky long after sunset, finally disappearing beneath the western horizon some four hours after the Sun goes down. Take your time enjoying the pair with binoculars, a telescope, or your camera.
Sunrise: 7:22 A.M.
Sunset: 4:47 P.M.
Moonrise: 10:07 A.M.
Moonset: 9:03 P.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent (17%)
*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40° N 90° W. The Moon’s illumination is given at 12 P.M. local time from the same location.
Saturday, January 4
Earth reaches perihelion this morning at 8 A.M. EST, when our planet’s not-quite-circular orbit brings us to our closest point to the Sun for the year. On this day, we are just 91.4 million miles (147 million km) from our star.
The Moon passes 0.7° north of 1st-magnitude Saturn at noon EST; by sunset, the two are 3° apart, with the Moon to Saturn’s upper left in the sky and bright Venus to the ringed planet’s lower right. Again, it’s a lovely scene for astrophotographers to capture, particularly if earthshine is visible on the Moon, illuminating the portions of its darkened nearside still in Earth’s shadow.
Zoom in on the lit portion of our satellite with a telescope, and you’ll easily spot the small, dark round spot of Mare Crisium. To its north is a large, oval-shaped crater spanning some 80 miles (130 km): Cleomedes. Within this crater is a long, thin linear feature called a rille. Known as Rima Cleomedes, this lighter-colored groove will show up under high magnification and at moments of good seeing, set within the northeastern region of Cleomedes near a smattering of several small craters marring the larger crater’s floor.
Sunrise: 7:22 A.M.
Sunset: 4:48 P.M.
Moonrise: 10:33 A.M.
Moonset: 10:15 P.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent (26%)
Sunday, January 5
The Moon now passes into Pisces and stands 1.1° north of Neptune at 10 A.M. EST. By evening, our satellite is more than 4.5° from Neptune, standing to the ice giant’s upper left. Now Saturn and Venus, both in Aquarius, lie to the crescent Moon’s far lower right.
Let the sky grow dark after sunset before pulling out binoculars or a telescope to search out the solar system’s most distant planet, which isn’t visible to the naked eye. Neptune currently forms a nice triangle with the stars 20 and 24 Piscium, which shine at magnitude 5.5 and 5.9, respectively. The gas giant is much fainter at magnitude 7.8, marking the apex of the triangle if you’re looking through optics that don’t change the orientation of the view (such as binoculars). The trio lies near the southwestern border of Pisces, about 4.7° southeast of magnitude 4.5 Lambda (λ) Psc.
Sunrise: 7:22 A.M.
Sunset: 4:49 P.M.
Moonrise: 10:56 A.M.
Moonset: 11:27 P.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent (36%)
Monday, January 6
First Quarter Moon occurs at 6:56 P.M. EST. The Moon hangs in Pisces near the 4th-magnitude star Epsilon Psc this evening and remains visible until shortly after midnight.
Over in the east, the icy moon Europa transits the face of Jupiter tonight, beginning around 8:25 P.M. EST. The bright planet is easy to find, shining at magnitude –2.7 to the upper right of Aldebaran, the 1st-magnitude red giant that marks the eye of Taurus the Bull.
Through a telescope, you can watch as Europa moves westward across Jupiter’s disk. Just before 10 P.M. EST, the small, dark blot of the moon’s shadow appears at the southeastern limb, following the moon across. Europa itself exits the southwestern limb about an hour later, at 11 P.M. EST, while the shadow continues until about 12:30 A.M. EST (now early on the 7th in the Eastern time zone only) before it disappears.
Sunrise: 7:22 A.M.
Sunset: 4:50 P.M.
Moonrise: 11:20 A.M.
Moonset: —
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent (47%)
Tuesday, January 7
Early risers are in for a treat this morning, as the planet Mercury sits near the Trifid (M20) and Lagoon (M8) nebulae in the southeastern sky just before sunrise this morning.
About 40 minutes before sunrise, the magnitude –0.4 planet is some 5° high. A small telescope should show the planet’s 85-percent-lit phase. Through your finder scope or with a pair of binoculars, scan the area some 2° east and southeast of the planet. There, you might see the stars associated with M20 and M8, respectively. The nebulae themselves will be too faint to make out in the brightening sky.
Also nearby and rising about 30 minutes after Mercury in the east is Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS). Heading for perihelion — the closest point to the Sun in its orbit — on the 13th, the comet has been brightening and was recently recorded around 5th magnitude. You may spot it with binoculars or a telescope some 5° southeast (to the lower left) of Mercury this morning. Note that the comet may have brightened even more since the time of writing — stay tuned to Astronomy.com for more details on how to view it if so.
The Moon reaches perigee, the closest point to Earth in its orbit, at 7:01 P.M. EST this evening. At that time, our satellite will sit 230,013 miles (370,170 km) away.
Sunrise: 7:22 A.M.
Sunset: 4:51 P.M.
Moonrise: 11:45 A.M.
Moonset: 12:38 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous (59%)
Wednesday, January 8
Rising in the east as the Sun is setting is the deep red carbon star R Leporis, also popularly known as Hind’s Crimson Star. Some two hours after sunset, you’ll find this sun some 20° high, about 7.5° to the right of bright magnitude 0.2 Rigel, Orion’s knee.
However, the catch here is you won’t see this star without optical aid. That’s because R Lep is a variable star whose magnitude swings from 5.5 to 11.7 over the course of some 427 days. Currently it’s nearing the faint end of that range, recently observed at magnitude 10, so you’ll need a telescope to pick it up. (When it’s at its brightest, however, the star is just visible to the naked eye.)
Carbon stars appear such a deep red because the abundant carbon compounds in their atmospheres more readily absorb short wavelengths of light (the blue and green portion of the spectrum), allowing mainly longer-wavelength red light through. Hind’s Variable Star was discovered by John Russell Hind in 1845 — the same astronomer who discovered asteroid 14 Irene, which we observed earlier this week.
Sunrise: 7:22 A.M.
Sunset: 4:52 P.M.
Moonrise: 12:14 P.M.
Moonset: 1:53 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous (70%)
Thursday, January 9
The Moon passes 4° north of Uranus at 11 A.M. EST, having crossed the border from Aries (where Uranus sits) into Taurus.
A few hours later, the Moon occults several stars in the Pleiades star cluster (M45), visible in all time zones except Pacific, where the event takes place in daylight. The farther east you are, the darker your sky will be as Luna appears to pass in front of the bright cluster from our point of view.
The exact timing of the event depends heavily upon your location — the International Occultation Timing Association’s website for 2025 bright star occultations has links to detailed lists of disappearance and reappearance time by city. (Note this event occurs on January 10 UTC, so click on the occultations listed for that date.)
Those in the eastern U.S. will likely notice 4th-magnitude Electra disappear first behind the Moon’s limb around 7 P.M. EST. About 20 minutes later, similarly bright Merope disappears. In parts of the Midwest, the Moon just misses Electra, making Merope the first star to vanish around 6 P.M. CST. A little over half an hour later, Alcyone disappears, then Atlas and Pleione about 45 minutes after that. If you have a small telescope, you can watch even more stars vanish, as the Moon occults several 7th-magnitude stars in this region as well.
Venus reaches greatest eastern elongation at midnight EST, now 47° from the Sun.
Sunrise: 7:22 A.M.
Sunset: 4:53 P.M.
Moonrise: 12:49 P.M.
Moonset: 3:08 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous (79%)
Friday, January 10
Skimming through Taurus, the Moon passes 5° north of Jupiter at 6 P.M. EST. The two are visible roughly all night long, with bright Jupiter still standing out even as the Moon reaches some 90 percent Full this evening. In fact, the magnitude –2.7 planet makes it appear almost as if the Bull has two eyes, standing to the upper left of the red giant Aldebaran, Taurus’ brightest star.
To the lower left of Taurus is Gemini, its two brightest stars standing in a nearly vertical line as they rise. At the “top” is magnitude 1.6 Castor, while below it is magnitude 1.2 Pollux. Compare their colors carefully — can you see that Castor appears more blue-white than Pollux, which has a yellow hue? Below these two stars and slightly to the left is a much brighter red point of light — this is magnitude –1.3 Mars, which is nearing opposition on the 15th. The Red Planet now appears 15” across in the sky, with the huge canyon Valles Marineris visible roughly centrally on the disk around 9 P.M. local time from the central U.S.
Sunrise: 7:22 A.M.
Sunset: 4:54 P.M.
Moonrise: 1:32 P.M.
Moonset: 4:24 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous (88%)
Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron.
