At the end of one year and the beginning of the next, it is common to look back and reflect on what has happened and to look forward and hope for what may come.
But for me, as an astronomer, it means another new opportunity to look at up and look at the best show in the universe.
This new year of 2025 will bring some interesting and beautiful sights in the sky. Let’s look at the most excited ones. All events appear in Eastern Time (EST or EDT, whichever occurs) unless otherwise noted. And all descriptions assume you’ll be seeing these sky views from the Northern Hemisphere, specifically the US
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January (throughout the month): This is the best time of year to look at Venus, which shines almost brilliantly in the southwestern sky at sunset. On January 10th the planet reaches its greatest eastern elongation, as seen from Earth, to the point in its orbit that is as far from the sun in the sky. After this date it will begin to move between the Earth and the sun, increasing in apparent size and becoming brighter, although it will look more like a crescent moon.Venus goes through phases like the moon. In late February/early March it will sink lower towards the sun at sunset, but will be even brighter than now, with a thin crescent shape that is easy to see with binoculars. After that, Venus will be too close to the sun to see until it reappears as a “morning star” in late March.
January 13: In the evening, the full moon will hide the planet Mars – it will pass directly -, eclipsing it. Moon occultations are fun – seeing a bright object close to the moon and suddenly winking when it’s blocked by our natural satellite can be fun. After sunset, you’ll see Mars as a bright orange “star” to the lower left of the moon as it rises in the east. The distance between the pair will decrease as the shielding approaches. The event can be seen with the naked eye, but it will be more interesting with binoculars, which can reveal details about the moon, or with a telescope that can show Mars as a small disk instead of a small point. Its time will therefore depend on your exact location check out the website of the International Occultation Timing Association that lists exact times for various locations. The shield will be visible throughout the continental US, as well as northwest Africa.
January 15: A few days after occultation, Mars will reach opposition, the moment when the planet is in line with the sun in the sky, as seen from Earth. This happens when the Earth, which is closer to the Sun, “turns around” to Mars as the planets orbit, and the arrangement of the three objects approaches a straight line in space. Mars will be there all night, rising at sunset and setting at dawn. In general, a planet is in opposition when it is closest to Earth throughout the year. Mars has an elliptical orbit that messes with the geometry a bit, however: the Red Planet will be closest to Earth on January 12th, but the difference will be small – it will be about 96 million kilometers between that date and January 15th. It will also be at its brightest all year round -1.4 in magnitudemaking it one of the brightest objects in the night sky. Find an observatory or astronomy society near you and find out if it has views!
January 17 and 18: On these dates bright Venus and much darker Saturn are only two degrees in the sky and will be low in the southwest at sunset. It’s a good idea to go out and watch every night a few days before the event, so you can see the planets slowly approach each other, the perspective of their respective movements around the sun and our own.
February 1: The four-day waning moon will be just a few degrees from Venus, making a beautiful pair. Look for them in the southwestern sky after sunset. When you look at the moon, see if you can see the earthshine, the reflected light of our planet illuminating the dark side of our natural satellite. It will be a great photo session!
February 6: The new crescent moon will pass directly over the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, a small but bright group of stars in the constellation Taurus. Looking like (and commonly mistaken for) a smaller version of the Little Dipper, the Pleiades are a group of stars born together about 100 million years ago, a couple of dozen of which are visible through binoculars. The transit of the moons through the cluster will be interesting. It will approach the Pleiades near midnight and take a few hours to make the crossing—which will be easier to see from the West Coast during the first part of the event. The moon will make several passes through the cluster throughout the year, but most of them will not be visible. This will happen before sunrise on July 20th, around 11:00pm on October 9th, and finally around 8:00pm on December 3rd.
March 13: The only total lunar eclipse of the year Visibility in the US will begin around 11 p.m., as the moon enters the penumbra, the faint part of Earth’s shadow. It will be hard to see, but the show begins at 1:09 a.m. on March 14, with the moon in the umbra, the dark shadow, and he seems to be eating slowly. The Moon will be completely engulfed in shadow at 02:26 and may appear very red or brown in color. The full phase lasts until 3:32 am, when our natural satellite begins to return to sunlight. The Moon will be fully out of the umbra at 04:48 and fully out at 06:00.
March 29: Unusually, there will not be a total solar eclipse this year. But on this date there will be a partial eclipse, while the sun rises in the morning for people living in the northeastern part of the US, Maine will have the best show of all the states: 80 percent of the sun will be covered. the moon there The exact times of the eclipse will depend on your location, so check the time and date zone to find out.
From April 12 to 18: It will be a treat for early risers: the planets Mercury, Mars and Saturn will be about 5 degrees from each other. This will be a bit difficult to see because it will be low to the east before sunrise. But it will be 6 in the morning to take a look, especially with binoculars. On April 24, the waning moon will join the waning moon, although by then, Mercury will be much lower and harder to see.
May: This will be your last chance to see Jupiter before it gets 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 the constellation Leo Both objects will have the same brightness, about 1.4 magnitude, but their colors are very different. While Mars is deep orange-reddish, Regulus is blue-white.
July 3: It will be the earth aphelionthe farthest point in its orbit from the sun. It will separate 152.09 million kilometers, two million kilometers more than the average.
August 12: Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest planets, will be within one degree, visible in the east before sunrise. They will be next to each other for many days before and after the event, and if you are an early riser, it will be fun to watch their positions change every morning.
September 19: 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 an early riser.
November 23: On this date Saturn’s rings will appear very nearly edge-on. This happens every 15 years, which is twice for each of Saturn’s orbits around the sun. You’ll need a telescope to see the event (or not, I guess). The rings are incredibly thin, only a dozen meters thick in some parts, so whenever they are visible at the edge they seem to disappear as Earth passes through the plane of the rings. This will happen twice in 2025, but for the first time, in March, Saturn will be too close to the sun to see. Again, check a local observatory will organize observation sessions!
Meteor showers: The the usually reliable Perseid meteor shower between August 12-13 the moonlight will wash it out this year, unfortunately. But others must be visible. On May 3-5, Eta Aquarids will have its peakvisible with 10 to 30 shooting stars per hour. And on December 13-14 the Geminids (my favorite) will peak, with 100 meteors visible per hour (although usually a little less). This article American scientific he has a guide to see those showers. You can do it too go to this American Meteor Society website for more information and advice.
Supermoons: In the meantime I’m not a huge fan of the idea of a “supermoon”.—The concept that the Moon is particularly large and bright when it is full and closest to Earth in its elliptical orbit—is widespread. And I would never encourage anyone no looking at the moon! There will be three supermoons this year, on October 7th, November 5th and December 4th. On these dates, the Moon will be about 25,000 to 30,000 km closer to Earth than its average distance of 385,000 km. You probably won’t notice the difference, but a full moon is always a fascinating sight.
Auroras: As we call the aurora in the northern hemisphere, the northern lights are unpredictable events. but it can happen almost anywhere in the USas we found out 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 is for everyone, and if you have the chance to see one or all of these events, take it. Or just go out in the old days. A life spent under the night sky is never wasted.
