January skies

January 12, 2026

key points from this story:

• Moon occults stars and planets
• Jupiter reaches opposition January 10
• Saturn visible in southwest evenings
• Uranus near Pleiades in Taurus
• Neptune close to Saturn in Pisces
• Quadrantid meteors peak January 3

The Moon during 2026 occults planets, significant asteroids, and 1st-magnitude stars within 5° of the ecliptic. With 38 such events visible around the globe, including monthly occultations of Antares and Regulus all year, a 4-month series for Jupiter, and several more for Venus, there will be many showing up on these pages.

January starts off with the Moon at perigee (closest to Earth) at 306,348 km distance. Full phase occurs two days later, on the 3rd, with Jupiter 4 degrees south. The Beehive Cluster (M44) is 1.3 degrees south of the Moon on the 4th, and Regulus is 0.5 degrees south on the 6th — an occultation in the Eastern Hemisphere. On the 11th, Spica is 1.7 degrees north of the last-quarter Moon. Apogee occurs on the 13th at 405,438 km. Antares, the bright red star in Scorpius, is 0.6 degrees north of the Moon — another occultation, this time in the Southern Hemisphere. The Moon is new on the 18th. January 23 sees the crescent Moon 4 degrees north of Saturn. The Moon is among the stars of the Pleiades on the 27th. Perigee occurs on the 29th at 365,871 km. The 30th finds the nearly full Moon 4 degrees north of Jupiter.

Mercury is too close to the Sun to be visible. Venus is too close to the Sun to be visible. Mars is too close to the Sun to be visible.

Jupiter reaches opposition on the 10th. This is a good time to view the Galilean moons, discovered by Galileo in 1609. He tracked their movement over a period of days and realized that not only do those satellites orbit the gas giant, so must the planets orbit the Sun. A heretical notion at the time, but he was right. The Moon is nearby on the 3rd and the 30th.

Saturn is well placed for evening viewing in the southwest. Watch for the ring tilt to gradually increase over the next months and years. Watch also for the occasional shadow of one of Saturn’s moons to transit the globe. The Ringed Planet closes in on Neptune over the course of the month, getting to less than 2 degrees away, or so it appears from our vantage. The Moon is 4 degrees away on the 23rd.

Uranus is in Taurus for all of 2026, hovering near the Pleiades. The blue-green gas planet has been retrograding for several months, now slowing to its stationary point in early February. It’s good to recall that retrograde motion is only apparent, caused by Earth’s more rapid orbit closer to the Sun.

Neptune is near Saturn in Pisces, where it remains all year. Optical aid is necessary to see the tiny distant disk of the furthest-most planet — 30.76 astronomical units away. That's 30.76 times farther than Earth’s average distance from the Sun, or 4.5 billion kilometres away.

Earth is at perihelion of 147,099,894 km (closest distance to the Sun) on January 3. The Quadrantid meteors peak in the afternoon of January 3.