January Podcast: Mars Meets the Moon

This episode is sponsored by Celestron, manufacturer of high-quality telescopes and an industry leader in developing exciting optical products with revolutionary technologies.

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If you’re listening to this Sky Tour podcast early enough in January, you’ll have a chance to make note of two celestial happenings that occur early this month. First, 2025 opens with one of the year’s best displays of “shooting stars.” The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks on January 3rd, with a short, sharp burst of activity. These meteors get their name from Quadrans Muralis, an obsolete constellation near the handle of the Big Dipper — they seem to radiate from that point in the sky.

Second, Earth is closest to the Sun in its orbit at about 8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on January 4th. Now, you might think that the Sun and Earth are closest in June or July, when it’s hot here in the Northern Hemisphere. But actually, it’s just the opposite: We’re closest to the Sun in early January and farthest in early July.

One other event is worth mentioning: On the evening of January 13th, the full Wolf Moon has a very close encounter with the Red Planet. In fact, for most of North America (including all of the contiguous U.S.), Mars will disappear behind the lunar disk for up to an hour. Learn more about this striking coverup by listening to this month’s Sky Tour episode.

Meanwhile, maybe you’ve been seeing breathless alerts about some grand alignment of planets during January — and maybe you heard that January 25th was the magic date that shouldn’t be missed.  Much of this is overblown hype. It’s not an “alignment” — most of the planets just happen to be in the evening part of the sky. And it’s certainly not rare. For example, in December 2023, all five naked-eye planets, plus Uranus and Neptune, were above the horizon in early evening.

So to sort this all out, listen to this month’s episode. You’ll learn that, after sunset, Venus in the southwest and Jupiter in the east frame the evening sky like a pair of celestial bookends. Saturn isn’t far from Venus (they’re especially close together on January 17th and 18th), and after sunset Mars rises in the northeast, well to the lower left of Jupiter. Since Venus stays in view for about four hours after the Sun goes down, you’ll have plenty of time for the entire month to see these four lovely planets at the same time. This planet parade will continue during February, until Saturn sinks too deep in the evening twilight to be easy to spot.

Of course, there are plenty of stars in view as well, even if you suffer from a lot of light pollution. Once it gets good and dark swing well around to the left of where the Sun set until you’re facing southeast. You’ll have no trouble picking up the distinctive bright stars that outline the frame of Orion, the Hunter, who seems to be leaping up from the eastern horizon this time of year.

Orion gets special attention in this month’s episode, as does the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters that are positioned above him in the sky. The distinctive Pleiades, in particular, has been recognized by many cultures past and present. From the Celts to the Maori to the Aztecs, everyone seems to have a story involving the Pleiades. They’re even mentioned three times in the Bible.

That’s just a sample of the guided night-sky tour that you’ll get when you download or stream this month’s Sky Tour podcast. It’ll get your more-stargazing-in-2025 resolution off to an excellent start!

Read the full podcast transcript.