Moon Phases January 2025 (Eastern Time)
1st Quarter Full 3rd Quarter New
6 13 21 29
Meteors: The Quadrantid meteor shower has the potential to be the strongest shower of the year but usually the Quadrantids are de-emphasized due to the short length of maximum activity (6 hours) so that only people on the nighttime portion of Earth during that short interval get to see them at peak. The average hourly rate at peak under dark skies is 25/hour. These meteors usually lack persistent trains, but often produce bright fireballs. They will emanate from the north. Predictions for 2025 show a peak near 17:45 UT on January 3rd, which is around 1 pm - during daylight for Fort Myers! This timing favors the western Pacific area and especially in the northern latitudes where it is still dark. Rates could be quite high if observed under clear, transparent skies. The waxing crescent moon will have set before the source direction (the constellation Bootes, part of which used to be called "Quadrans") achieves a favorable altitude: generally, "favorable altitude" for meteor showers means after midnight! The source of the shower is interesting: 2003 EH1 is an asteroid, classified as near-Earth object of the Amor group, leaves a spalled trail of dust particles in its orbit on every perihelion passage. So, another "rock comet!" It was discovered on 6 March 2003, by astronomers of the LONEOS program at Anderson Mesa Station near Flagstaff, Arizona, in the United States. Peter Jenniskens, a Dutch-American astronomer, meteor shower expert, and senior research scientist at the Carl Sagan Center of the SETI Institute, proposed that it is the parent body of the Quadrantid meteor shower. 2003 EH1 is likely an extinct comet (what happens when all the surface ice has sublimed and you just have a crusty rocky remnant in the orbit) and may even be related to the comet C/1490 Y1. 2003 EH1 came to perihelion on 12 March 2014. So, if you see something streaking through the sky from the north after midnight up to January 16th or so, it's probably a Quadrantid!
Planets: Sunset, Night and Dawn
The brightest pointlike feature in our early evening sky is not a star, it's the brilliant planet Venus! Our "Morning star/Evening star which is really a planet" dominates the early evening southwestern sky all month long, in the southwest after sunset. It just gets brighter and brighter all month long! The waxing crescent Moon will make a lovely image passing Venus just after sunset on January 2rd and 3rd. Venus reaches greatest eastern elongation Jan. 9: it will be 47° from the Sun in our sky, and sets almost four hours after sunset!
At the beginning of the month, the planet Saturn is about 13 degrees east of Venus, so a bit higher in the evening sky. On the evening of January 4th, the Moon will be 4° northeast of Saturn as it passes that planet. But Venus' apparent position is changing: Venus closes the gap to Saturn over first two weeks of January, standing just under 4° west of the gas giant on the 14th and coming closest on the 17th, when only 2.2° separates them. By the 19th, Venus is 2.5° due north of the ringed planet, which shines fairly brightly - but never as bright as Venus! Saturn sets around 10 p.m. local time on the 1st and that's down to 8 p.m. by the 31st. Remember: there will be two "ring crossings" this year: the first one is in March, so looking through your telescope at Saturn will show the rings "nearly" edge-on by the end of January... and when it's visible again in April. During March, Saturn's going to be just too close to the Sun to be a good telescopic target.
At the start of the month, Jupiter will be bright and high in the eastern sky just after sunset and then about 4 hours later Mars will follow it. Jupiter's among the stars of the constellation Taurus, between the bull's "horns."
Mars rises a bit after 7 pm in the ENE, keep an eye out for its colorful presence! The highlight of the month is the opposition of Mars late on January 15th. It will be as bright as the brilliant star Sirius. Mars starts January in Cancer and as we sweep past it in our faster orbit, it appears to go west against the background stars (that's called "retrograde" apparent motion, and Mars has been retrograde since December 6th and will return to "prograde" February 23rd), entering Gemini by the 12th. Because it's in opposition to the Sun, it's high in the sky around local midnight.
Oppositions of Mars occur every 780 days. Mars’ closest approach to Earth occurs January 12th, a few days before the opposition. During opposition, Mars will be 59,703,891 miles from Earth. (This is an aphelic opposition, not as close as a perihelic one.)
Occultation: Jan 13th
On January 13th around 9 pm, the Moon will "occult" Mars: that means pass in front of Mars from Earth's point of view. Right after sunset, look slightly north of East, and you will see brilliant Mars just under the full Moon. Then check again an hour later, and an hour after that - Mars will disappear behind the Moon for a while. Also, you will notice that you have to adjust your viewing directions as Earth rotates and the Moon-Mars duo get higher in the sky and southerly rather than easterly as the hours pass. If you happen to be up in the predawn hours, facing west you will see Mars "below" the full Moon in the westerly direction: the moon will have passed west-to-east across Mars, and Earth's rotation will have brought them from the eastern sky to the western sky through the night.
Mercury is back to gracing our pre-dawn eastern sky, as well.
Stars this month
Looking east after sunset, you will see the bright stars of winter above your eastern horizon, with the constellations Orion (with bright stars Betelgeuse and Rigel) and Taurus (with brilliant Aldebaran and temporary visitor Jupiter), followed by Orion's two famous hunting dogs, the bright "dog stars," Sirius (in Canis Major) and Procyon (in Canis Minor), plus Castor and Pollux in Gemini, and Capella - the bright star in Auriga. Six bright winter stars surround Betelgeuse [pronounced BEEtle-juice] in what is nicknamed the Winter Hexagon. These will all be up by sunset at the start of January - and 4 minutes earlier each night that passes! But they are better seen a little later, when they are farther above the horizon, of course.
Planetarium
Each day we are open, we show two different planetarium shows, and odd day shows are different from even-day shows, so there are four different shows each month that alternate. Schedule and show descriptions can be accessed by clicking on "Simple Calendar" when you follow our Events link. On Sundays (the "Science Sundays" extra show), there's an additional "audience choice" show at 3:15, and typically on the First Sunday of each month we have a Sensory Sunday special show at 10:30 am, and most months we also have a Planetarium Premiere on the third Wednesday at 7 pm, so you have the potential to see ten different shows in the course of the month. The whole nature center, planetarium, butterfly aviary, raptor aviary and trails complex is open six days per week, closed Mondays. This month, our new Planetarium Supervisor, Todd Sherman, who has been Planetarium Educator here for years, will be presenting night sky talks with our recorded shows, Tuesday through Friday. On the weekend, you may encounter one of our volunteer presenters, or a new Education specialist with an astronomy/astrophysics background: Jonathan Hodge. Hoping to see you soon at the Center!
-- Heather Preston, Planetarium Director Emerita