Tour January’s Sky: Eclipsed Moon & More
Kelly Beatty | December 28, 2018


The waning crescent Moon slides by Venus and Jupiter in predawn twilight at both the beginning and end of January.
Sky & Telescope

The new year begins with a celestial bang as the prolific but little-known Quadrantid meteor shower peaks on the night of January 3rd.

Stay up long enough (or get up early enough), and you'll see Jupiter and Venus dance with a thin crescent Moon in the predawn sky. The Moon makes a return visit at month's end, pairing closely with Venus on January 31st.

Orion dominates the evening sky, climbing in the east as darkness falls and pointing the way (upward) toward celestial treats in Taurus:Aldebaran, the Hyades star cluster, and (higher up) the distinctive Pleiades (Seven Sisters) star cluster.

To the west (right) of Orion, search for a pair of dim, lesser-known constellations that together take up a lot of celestial real estate.

The month's biggest celestial event is a total eclipse of the Moon on the night of January 20–21, which will be visible all across the U.S. (and, in fact, from all of both North and South America. Tune in to our sky-tour podcast to get this event's key times and what to look for.