At the end of a year and the beginning of the next, it’s traditional to look back and muse over what happened and to look forward and hope for what might come.
But for me, as an astronomer, it means another fresh chance to look up and gaze at the best show in the universe.
This new year of 2025 will bring quite a few interesting and lovely sky sights. Let’s take a look at the ones I’m most excited about. All the events are listed in Eastern time (EST or EDT, depending on when they occur) unless otherwise noted. And all of the descriptions assume you will view these celestial sights from the Northern Hemisphere, specifically the U.S.
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January (all month): This is the best time all year to look at Venus, which shines almost shockingly bright in the southwestern sky after sunset. On January 10 the planet reaches greatest eastern elongation, the point in its orbit when, as seen from Earth, it’s as far from the sun in the sky as it gets. After this date it will start to move in between Earth and the sun, getting larger in apparent size and brighter even as it looks more and more like a crescent—Venus undergoes phases just like the moon does. By late February/early March it will sink lower toward the sun after sunset but be even brighter than it is now, with its thin crescent shape easy to see with binoculars. After that Venus will be too close to the sun to see until it will pop out once again as a “morning star” in late March.
January 13: In the early evening the full moon will occult—pass directly in front of—the planet Mars, eclipsing it. Lunar occultations are fun—seeing a bright object close to the moon and suddenly winking out as it’s blocked by our natural satellite can be delightful. Just after sunset you’ll see Mars as a brilliant orange “star” to the lower left of the moon as they rise in the east. The distance between the pair will narrow as the occultation approaches. The event will be viewable to the naked eye, but it will be more interesting with binoculars, which can reveal details on the moon, or even a telescope that might show Mars as a small disk instead of a tiny dot. Its timing will depend on your exact location, so check out a webpage at the International Occultation Timing Association’s site that lists specific times for various places. The occultation will be visible over the entire continental U.S., as well as northwestern Africa.
January 15: Just two days after the occultation, Mars will reach opposition—the time when the planet is opposite the sun in the sky, as seen from Earth. This happens when Earth, which is closer to the sun, “laps” Mars as the planets orbit, and the arrangement of the three objects in space becomes close to a straight line. Mars will be up all night, rising at sunset and setting at sunrise. In general, a planet is at opposition when it’s closest to Earth all year. Mars has an elliptical orbit that messes with the geometry a bit, however: the Red Planet will actually be closest to Earth on January 12, but the difference will be small—it will be about 96 million kilometers away at both that date and January 15. It will also shine at its brightest all year at magnitude –1.4, making it one of the most brilliant objects in the night sky. Look for an observatory or astronomical society near you and find out if it has viewings!
January 17 and 18: On these dates the brilliant Venus and much dimmer Saturn will be a mere two degrees apart in the sky and low to the southwest after sunset. It will be a good idea to go out and watch every night for a few days before the event, so you will be able to see the planets slowly approach each other, the result of perspective from their respective motions around the sun plus our own.
February 1: The thin, four-day-old crescent moon will be just a few degrees from Venus, making a lovely pair. Look for them in the sky in the southwest after sunset. When you observe the moon, see if you can spot earthshine, the reflected light of our own planet illuminating our natural satellite’s dark side. It will be a great photo op!
February 6: The just-past-halfway-to-full moon will pass directly through the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, a small but bright group of stars in the constellation Taurus. Looking like a smaller version of the Little Dipper (and commonly mistaken for it), the Pleiades are a cluster of stars born together about 100 million years ago, and a couple of dozen of them are visible through binoculars. The moon’s passage through the cluster will be an interesting sight. It will approach the Pleiades near midnight and take a few hours to make the crossing—this will be easier to see from the West Coast in the earlier part of the event. The moon will make several passes through the cluster over the year, but most won’t be visible. This will happen just before sunrise on July 20, around 11:00 P.M. on on October 9 and finally around 8:00 P.M. on December 3.
March 13: The only total lunar eclipse of the year that will be visible in the U.S. will start around 11:00 P.M., when the moon will enter the penumbra, the faint part of Earth’s shadow. This will be difficult to see, but the show will really begin at 01:09 A.M. on March 14, when the moon will enter the umbra, the darker shadow, and look like it is slowly being eaten. The moon will become fully engulfed in shadow at 2:26 A.M. and might look deeply red or even brownish. The total phase will last until 3:32 A.M., when our natural satellite will begin to move back into sunlight. The moon will be fully out of the umbra at 4:48 A.M. and fully out of the penumbra at 6 A.M.
March 29: Unusually, there will be no total solar eclipse this year. But on this date there will be a partial eclipse that will be visible in the early morning at sunrise for people living in the northeastern U.S. Maine will get the best show of all the states: as much as 80 percent of the sun will be covered by the moon there. The exact times of the eclipse will depend on your location, so check the Time and Date site to find out.
April 12–18: This will be a treat for early risers: the planetsMercury, Mars and Saturn will all be within about 5 degrees of one another. This will be a bit tough to see because they will be low to the east before sunrise. But 6 A.M. will be a good time to take a look, especially with binoculars. On April 24 the thin, waning crescent moon will join them, though by this time, Mercury will be much lower and more difficult to see.
May: This will be your last chance to see Jupiter before it will be too close to the sun in the sky for about a month. It will reappear in the morning sky in July.
June 17: After sunset, Mars will be a little less than a degree from Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo. The two objects will be the same brightness, about magnitude 1.4, but their colors are very different. While Mars is a deep reddish-orange, Regulus is blue-white.
July 3: Earth will be at aphelion, the farthest point in its orbit from the sun. It will be separated by 152.09 million kilometers, two million km more than average.
August 12: Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest planets, will be only one degree apart, visible in the east before sunrise. They’ll be close together for many days before and after the event, and if you get up early, it will be fun to see their positions change every morning.
September 19: Just before sunrise the thin crescent moon will be less than a degree from Venus, low to the east, a truly striking sight that will be worth getting up early to see.
November 23: On this date Saturn’s rings will appear very nearly edge on. This happens about every 15 years, meaning it occurs twice during each of Saturn’s orbits around the sun. You’ll need a telescope to see the event (or not see it, I suppose). The rings are incredibly thin, only a few dozen meters thick in some parts, so they seem to disappear whenever they’re viewed edge on as Earth passes through the plane of the rings. This will happen twice in 2025, but during the first time, in March, Saturn will be too close to the sun to see. Again, check to see if a local observatory will be hosting observing sessions!
Meteor showers: The normally reliable Perseid meteor shower on August 12–13 will be washed out by the bright moon this year, unfortunately. But others should be visible. On May 3–5 the Eta Aquarids will peak, with about 10 to 30 shooting stars visible per hour. And on December 13–14 the Geminids (my favorite) will peak, with up to 100 meteors visible per hour (though usually somewhat less). This article in Scientific American has a guide to viewing such showers. You can also go to this American Meteor Society webpage for more information and tips.
Supermoons: While I’m not a huge fan of the idea of a “supermoon”—the concept that the moon is particularly big and bright when it is both full and closest to Earth on its elliptical orbit—it is pervasive. And I would never encourage someone not to look at the moon! There will be three supermoons this year, on October 7, November 5 and December 4. On those dates the moon will be some 25,000 to 30,000 km closer to Earth than its average distance of 385,000 km. You likely won’t notice the difference, but the full moon is always a mesmerizing sight.
Auroras: The northern lights, as we call auroras in the Northern Hemisphere, are unpredictable events but can happen almost anywhere in the U.S., as we learned last May and October (I saw them clearly in Virginia). SpaceWeather.com and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s aurora forecast page are good places to look for updates.
Remember: the sky belongs to everyone, and if you get a chance to see any or all of these events, take it. Or just go outside any old time. A life spent under the night sky is never wasted.
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