Night Sky This Week: Through January 2nd, 2026

The night sky this week is filled with bright planets, classic winter constellations, and darker skies. With long winter nights and crisp air, stargazing conditions are excellent. Bundle up 🧣, step outside 🚪, and enjoy the show!

🌙 Evening & Night Sky Highlights

🪐 Saturn in Pisces

Saturn shines steadily in the southwest sky around 8 PM, nestled among the faint stars of Pisces ♓. Its soft, golden light makes it easy to distinguish from twinkling stars nearby. Through binoculars or a small telescope 🔭, you may glimpse the thin arc of its rings and spot Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, shining close by. On steady nights, additional moons may pop into view as tiny points of light.

🌙 Friday’s first-quarter Moon passes just north of Saturn around 10 PM CST, creating a beautiful pairing and making Saturn easy to locate for beginners.

🌠 Jupiter Dominates the East

Jupiter rises bright and bold in the eastern sky by 8 PM in Gemini ♊, outshining everything else in the evening sky. As the hours pass, it climbs higher and becomes even more striking. Binoculars reveal its four Galilean moons — Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto — which change position from night to night. With a telescope, you may also notice dark cloud bands stretching across Jupiter’s disk.

🔭 Neptune Near Saturn

Neptune lies to the left of Saturn, faint and distant. With a telescope or large binoculars, look for a tiny bluish-green disk — a subtle but rewarding sight that reminds us how vast our solar system truly is.

🌍 Earth Near Perihelion

Earth reaches perihelion (its closest point to the Sun) on January 3, meaning we’re slightly closer to the Sun now than at any other time of year.• This does not affect temperatures• It does mean the Sun appears just a bit larger• Planets and meteors move slightly faster across the sky

🌙 Morning Sky Highlights

☀️ Mercury at Dawn

Mercury remains in the early morning sky this week. About 30 minutes before sunrise, scan the southeast horizon for this elusive planet. It appears as a small, pale point of light just above the horizon, so a clear, unobstructed view is essential. Binoculars can help, but stop using them once the sky brightens.

🌌 Constellations to Look For

⭐ Big Dipper

Low in the northern sky, the Big Dipper rests with its bowl facing upward. Its two outer bowl stars point directly to Polaris, the North Star, which marks true north and remains nearly fixed as the rest of the sky appears to rotate around it.

✨ Auriga & Taurus

In the northeast, bright Capella — one of the brightest stars in the winter sky — leads Auriga the Charioteer. Nearby, Taurus ♉ features the reddish glow of Aldebaran and the Hyades star cluster, shaped like a loose “V.” Just above Taurus, the sparkling Pleiades star cluster looks stunning to the naked eye and breathtaking through binoculars.

🦢 Cygnus, the Swan

In the northwest, a cross-shaped pattern stands upright — the Winter Cross, part of Cygnus. Its bright star Deneb, once a corner of the Summer Triangle, now sinks lower each evening as winter deepens.

🌠 Winter Constellations Take Over

By late evening, winter’s most iconic constellations dominate the sky:• Orion, with his unmistakable three-star belt and glowing nebula in his sword• Taurus, hosting the Pleiades and Aldebaran• Gemini, marked by twin stars Castor and Pollux, standing near brilliant Jupiter

🎨 Star Colors of Winter

Winter skies are ideal for spotting star colors. Betelgeuse in Orion glows warm red-orange, while Rigel shines icy blue-white. Nearby in Canis Major, dazzling Sirius — the brightest star in the night sky — twinkles intensely, flashing blue, red, and white as it rises through Earth’s atmosphere.

🪑 So pull up a chair, let your eyes adjust 👀, and enjoy a beautiful week under the stars 🌌✨