January 14, 2026: A celestial almanac detailing a waning crescent moon near Antares, Jupiter after opposition, and evening visibility of the planets.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 7:16 a.m. CST; Sunset, 4:44 p.m. CST. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times.
Celestial Almanac for Sun, Moon, and Planets
Sun: From Chicago’s latitude, daylight lasts 9 hours, 28 minutes. In comparison, from Miami, the sun is in the sky for 10 hours, 42 minutes, and in Anchorage, daylight spans 6 hours, 22 minutes. The sun is overhead at latitude 21° south at noon.
Moon: The lunar orb displays a waning crescent phase. It rises over three hours before daybreak. At one hour before daybreak, the 16% illuminated crescent is nearly 15° above the south-southeast horizon. It is in front of Scorpius, 3.5° to Antares’ upper right. The moon displays earthshine, sunlight reflected from Earth’s features, which softly lights the lunar night. Photograph it with a tripod-mounted camera or a steady smartphone camera. Exposures of a few seconds overexpose the crescent and show the earthshine.
Inner Planets
Mercury: The innermost planet is moving toward its superior conjunction with the sun on the 21st. It is hidden by bright sunlight and rises only five minutes before sunrise. After conjunction, Mercury moves into the evening sky, reaching greatest elongation on February 19.
Venus: After its superior conjunction about a week ago, Venus sets only five minutes after sundown. It joins Mercury in the western sky later next month.
Bright Outer Planets
Mars: The Red Planet is the third bright planet masked by bright sunlight. It was at solar conjunction on the 9th. With the solar system at a very shallow angle in the eastern sky before sunrise, Mars makes its first appearance before sunrise during late spring.
Jupiter: The Jovian Giant shines in the sky nearly all night long. Now a few nights after its opposition and closest approach to Earth, Jupiter rises before sunset in the east-northeast, appears high in the southern sky before midnight, and sets in the west-northwest before sunrise. To the unaided eye, Jupiter resembles a bright star—the brightest in tonight’s sky, over three times brighter than Sirius—but the planet’s clouds and brightest moons appear through a telescope’s eyepiece. Jupiter continues to retrograde in front of Gemini, near the Twins, 7.6° from Pollux.
Saturn: The Ringed Wonder begins the night nearly 40° above the south-southwest horizon. Not as bright as Jupiter, it is the brightest star-like object in the region and about the same brightness as Fomalhaut, the 13th brightest star seen from the mid-northern latitudes, about 30° to the lower left. Through a telescope, the rings continue to appear as a thin line.
Dim Outer Planets
Uranus: The Tilted World retrogrades in front of Taurus, in the same binocular field with the Pleiades star cluster. Appearing as an aquamarine star, it is about the same brightness as 13 and 14 Tauri (Tau). Look for it at least 90 minutes after sunset until well after midnight.
Neptune: Nearing the end of its apparition, the solar system’s most-distant planet is in the same binocular field with Saturn. Like Uranus, begin at the end of evening twilight, but the window lasts for about two hours before the planet is too low in the sky and the atmosphere’s filtering effects dim and blur the already faint planet. Use averted (peripheral) vision to see the planet, which appears as a dim blue star.
Look for the bright planets and the moon during the night. Use a binocular to look for Uranus and Neptune.
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