Send us a text

Social Media Links

Full text available at the Cosmos Safari Blog

January 2025 is a PLANETARY month! Mars gets big, Mars gets occulted, Mars gets outshined by Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter, then Venus and Saturn pass right by each other, and a brief but intense meteor shower shows up. 

Hi everybody, I’m Rob, your Last Minute Astronomer, bringing astronomy to normies and nerds, with little time to spare.  

We’ll start by talking about January’s big events, then highlight the naked eye planets, and finish up with the lunar phases, so you can plan ahead better than me.  

BIG EVENTS

2nd - 3rd – Quadrantid Meteor Shower

13th - Occultation of Mars

15th - Opposition of Mars 

17th - 18th - CONJUNCTION of Venus & Saturn 

Naked-eye PLANETS

Sunset - Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars

Middle of the night - Jupiter, Mars

Morning - Mars, Mercury

LUNAR CYCLE

Evening Crescents (look West after Sunset)

First Quarter Moon – 6th (Visible until midnight)

Evening Gibbous (Mostly lit, after Sunset)

Full Moon – 13th (Visible all night)

Waning Gibbous (Mostly lit, rises later at night)

Last Quarter Moon – 21st (Visible midnight into the morning)

Morning Crescents (look East in the AM)

New Moon – 29th (darkest skies)

LUNAR CLOSE ENCOUNTERS 

The Moon will be traveling across the sky as normal, passing by some planets at particular times. 

3rd - Thin Waxing Crescent left of Venus by 3°, SW sky after sunset, starting 30° above the horizon, sets around 8:30pm.  Saturn is also nearby, just 10° up and to the left.

4th -  Slightly thicker crescent Moon about 3° up and to the left of Saturn, in the SSW after sunset, setting in the West before 10pm.  

10th - Find the almost Full Moon just about 5° above bright Jupiter moving West throughout the night, setting just before 5am.

13th - MORE than a close encounter, Mars will be right next to the Moon all night, except for about an hour when the Moon occults Mars.  Around Philadelphia, the occultation starts at 9:17pm, when the Moon passes right in front of Mars.  This lasts until about 10:32pm, when Mars pops back out on the other side of the Moon.

31st - Feb 2nd - Moon, Saturn, Venus

And that’s the sky for this month! If you find this advance notice of the night sky helpful, please support this work by finding Last Minute Astronomer on Patreon, and don’t forget to follow Last Minute Astronomer on Facebook and Instagram. Till next month, I’m the Last Minute Astronomer wishing you fruitful plans and clear skies. Music was produced by Deep Sky Dude and used with permission.