January 1, 2026: As the New Year begins, Jupiter, Saturn and Moon dominate the evening sky, while Orion’s Betelgeuse rises at sunset. This almanac details where and when to look with directions and separations.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 7:18 a.m. CST; Sunset, 4:31 p.m. CST. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times.
New Year’s Celestial Almanac for Sun, Moon, and Planets
New Year’s night features Jupiter, Saturn, Moon, and Betelgeuse.
Sun: For sky watchers in Chicago, sunrise continues at its latest time through January 10th. Today, daylight lasts 9 hours, 13 minutes at Chicago’s latitude. In comparison, the sun is in the sky for 10 hours, 34 minutes in Miami, while daylight spans only 5 hours, 40 minutes in Anchorage. During January, daylight increases 48 minutes in Chicago, 25 minutes in Miami, and 2 hours, 3 minutes in Anchorage. Today, the sun is overhead at noon slightly north of latitude 23° south.
Moon: Approaching the Full (Wolf) phase, the bright moon is in the eastern sky as darkness falls. It is in front of Taurus, 1.2° to the right of Elnath, one of the Bull’s horns, and over 15° to Aldebaran’s lower left. The lunar orb passes 0.8° to the star’s lower right at 6:55 p.m. Central Time. Tomorrow morning, the moon sets over 20 minutes before daybreak. Tonight, and during the next few evenings, moonlight illuminates the ground for a New Year’s outdoor moon walk along familiar paths. Allow your eyes a few minutes to adapt to the light, which provides a way to navigate without additional illumination.
This month’s lunar phases occur as follows: Full on the 3rd; Last Quarter on the 10th; New on the 18th; and First Quarter on the 25th. After tonight, watch the moon appear closer to bright Jupiter, reaching its closest separation in two nights, when the planet, moon, and Pollux fit into the same binocular field of view.
Inner lanets
Mercury: The innermost planet quickly moves from east of the sun to west of the central star and back again. It never appears far from the sun in either morning or evening twilight and never reaches opposition at midnight. Today, Mercury is west of the sun, meaning it rises before sunrise. It rises 44 minutes before sunup and is hidden by bright morning twilight. Mercury reaches superior conjunction with the sun—on the sun’s far side—on January 21st. It then moves into the evening sky, where it appears with Venus during late February.
Venus: The Morning Star is ending its stint west of the sun. Venus reaches superior conjunction on January 6th and then begins its apparition as the Evening Star for most of the year.
Bright Outer Planets
Mars:The Red Planet is the third bright planet in this list that appears near the sun. Mars reaches solar conjunction on January 9th. Because the plane of the solar system (the ecliptic) makes a shallow angle with the eastern horizon before sunrise during winter and early spring, Mars does not reappear in the predawn sky until June.
Jupiter: The Jovian Giant shines in the sky nearly all night as the brightest starlike body in the night sky. To the unaided eye, it appears as a star, but through a telescope it shows a globe with features. Jupiter rises in the east-northeast about 45 minutes after sundown, appears high in the southern sky after midnight, and is above the west-northwest horizon before sunrise. By three hours after nightfall, it is over 20° above the eastern horizon. Jupiter retrogrades in front of Gemini, 6.9° to Pollux’s lower right, one of the Twins. It passes Castor—the second brother—in a wide conjunction on the 5th.
Saturn: The Ringed Wonder is the second bright planet in tonight’s sky. An hour after sunset, it is about halfway up in the south-southwest. While not as bright as Jupiter, it is brighter than most stars in the region. Compare it to Fomalhaut—the mouth of the Southern Fish—about 30° to Saturn’s lower right. Through a telescope’s eyepiece, Saturn’s rings are seen nearly edge on and appear as a line across the planet. This once-every-15-year geometry causes Saturn to appear dimmer than average because the rings reflect sunlight away from Earth.
Uranus and Neptune
Uranus: The Tilted World is in the same binocular field of view with Taurus’ Pleiades star cluster. While it can be found in this moonlight, wait until the moon wanes to a crescent phase for easier viewing.
Neptune: The solar system’s most distant planet is in the same binocular field of view with Saturn, although Neptune is over three times farther away. Its visibility is strongly affected by moonlight and outdoor lighting. Like Uranus, wait for moonless nights to look for it after the end of evening twilight. The window to see Neptune with Saturn as a guide is quickly closing. In another lunar cycle, Neptune is lower in the sky after sundown, where thicker air near the horizon dims and blurs the planet.
Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse: The bright red-orange star marking Orion’s shoulder rises at sunset tonight.
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