Enjoy extended stargazing in January
January nights in Butler are full of starry delights, and we have so many hours to enjoy them, provided the weather cooperates. As 2026 kicks off, you can even begin your stargazing adventures before 6 p.m. You really have to bundle up though but the show is worth it! I just love stargazing this time of year! What’s ironic is that on Jan. 4, Earth reaches perihelion, its minimum distance to the sun as it orbits our home star. So, even though Earth is over 1.5 million miles closer to the sun than average, we in the northern hemisphere don’t benefit. Our part of the globe is angled away from the sun’s strongest rays because of the tilt of the Earth’s axis.
We start the month with a whole lot of moonlight. The full moon is on the third, and in many circles it’s traditionally known as the full wolf moon. Also, because it’s a little closer to Earth on average, the full moon this month is arbitrarily known as a “supermoon.” For sure, it’ll appear a little larger than usual and will really shut down serious stargazing with all its light. By midmonth, dark evening skies resume as the moon rises much later and wanes.
The Quadrantids meteor shower, one of the best of the year, peaks the night of Jan. 3, and will be visible after midnight. Usually, you might see up to around 20 meteors or “shooting stars” per hour. Unfortunately, this year the Quadrantids will be overwhelmed with moonlight but you may see a few meteors, especially in the countryside.
We only have two planets available for viewing in the evening, Jupiter and Saturn, but they’re the best ones for viewing in my opinion. You absolutely can’t miss Jupiter, the behemoth planet of the solar system, beaming away in the early evening eastern sky. By far, it’s the brightest star-like object in the sky, positioned in the constellation Gemini. On Jan. 3, Jupiter will be just to the lower left of the full moon in a very tight celestial hug! On Jan. 10, Jupiter reaches what astronomers call opposition. It’ll be available for viewing all night long, rising in the east at sunset and setting in the west around sunrise. The 88,000-mile-wide planet is also at its closest approach to Earth for 2026, only about 393 million miles away, which for Jupiter is considered close by. Through even a small telescope or a good pair of binoculars, you’ll easily see Jupiter’s four brightest moons appearing as faint stars dancing around Jupiter from night to night. With a telescope, you can also see Jupiter’s brightest cloud bands striping the huge planet. You might get a glimpse of the famous Great Red Spot, a storm that’s been raging on Jupiter for hundreds of years.
Saturn, while not nearly as bright as Jupiter, is also a great telescope target. As evening twilight fades, look for Saturn in the southern sky about halfway from the horizon to the overhead zenith. While it’s not all that bright, it’s the brightest star-like object in that neighborhood of the sky. As unassuming as it appears to the naked eye, it’s fantastic with even a small telescope. You should have no trouble seeing its ring system, although the angle between the planet and the ring system is still pretty narrow from our view on Earth. As 2026 progresses though, the angle will continue to slowly open up.
Throughout January, the absolute best stargazing in the early evening will be in the east-southeast. Not only will Jupiter light up that part of the heavens but there’ll be a barrage of bright stars that make up the magnificent winter constellations. My nickname for them is "Orion and his gang.” Orion is the most brilliant of the group, in the middle of the winter shiners.
At first glance, the mighty hunter Orion resembles a crooked bow tie, but without too much imagination, you can see how that bow tie resembles the torso of a massive man. Orion's brightest stars are Rigel, which marks one of the hunter's knees, and the red giant star Betelgeuse at his armpit. The three bright stars that make Orion’s belt are lined up perfectly and jump right out at you. Three fainter stars in a row just to the lower right of the belt form Orion’s sword. The middle star in the sword will appear fuzzy to the naked eye. That’s because it’s not a single star. It’s the Orion Nebula, a giant cloud of hydrogen gas giving birth to new stars. Even with a small telescope, it’s possible to see four newborn stars and maybe even a few more within the nebula.
Elsewhere in Orion’s gang is Auriga, the chariot driver with the bright star Capella. There’s also Taurus the Bull, with the little arrow pointing to the right that outlines the bull’s face and the bright reddish star Aldebaran marking the angry red eye of the beast. Not far away are the Pleiades, a beautiful shining star cluster that resembles a tiny Big Dipper. The Pleiades star cluster is made up of over one hundred young stars, probably less than 100 million years old. The Pleiades, also known as the “Seven Little Sisters,” are the daughters of the deposed god Atlas.
Rising in the low southeast is a really bright star, Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky at any time throughout the year. It’s not as bright as Jupiter but it’ll certainly get your attention! If you draw a line through Orion’s belt and extend it to the lower left, it will point right at Sirius, a star a little more than eight light-years away.
In the low northern sky, the Big Dipper appears to be nearly standing on its handle. The Big Dipper is not an official constellation but instead makes up the bright derrière and tail of Ursa Major. To the upper right of the Big Dipper is the Little Dipper hanging by its handle. Polaris, the North Star, shines at the end of the handle. The Little Dipper is also known as Ursa Minor, the Little Bear.
Don’t nocturnally hibernate! January stargazing is too good to miss!
Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is also the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and at adventurepublications.net. Contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.
