This Months Sky
The times stated should always be in ‘Universal Time’ (UT) which basically ignores the British Summer Time rule. and should therefore be one hour behind BST.
Sources: Unless specified otherwise the following detail is taken from either the BBC Sky At Night magazine for that month or from the BAA (British Astronomy Association) Observing Calendar, the exact timings may have been left out to encourage members to seek out the data for themselves.
Author: Brian Shepherd
January 2026
| 1st | The Moon will reach the closest point, perigee, along its orbit to the Earth and will appear slightly larger than at other times. |
| 2nd | Asteroid 40 Harmonia will be at opposition tonight reaching its highest point in the night sky around midnight UT. The Galilean Moon Callisto reappears from behind Jupiter around 02:00 UT. |
| 3rd | Tonights full Moon is declared as a Supermoon owing to it being just after perigee. Earth is also at perihelion today meaning it is at its closet point to our Sun. The bright Moon will spoil the viewing of the Quadrantid meteor shower, peak ZHR can be around 120 under good dark skies. |
| 6th | Just before 02:00 UT hours the moon Io will start to be seen crossing Jupiter along with its surface shadow. |
| 7th | Between 01:59 and 05:44 UT the moon Ganymede will transit Jupiter along with its shadow. |
| 9th | One of the last chances for a while to see the moon Titan transiting Saturn between 16:52 and 22:22 UT. |
| 10th | One of Jupiters Galilean moons Callisto will be transiting across its surface at around 06:55. |
| 11th | From just before 18:00 UT this evening the moon Europa can be seen touching its shadow as it crosses the surface of Saturn, ending in 20:45 UT. |
| 12th | Our Moon is showing features only seen from earth in greater detail during libration in the north-west limb. |
| 13th | It is the turn of the moon Io to touch its shadow as it passes over the surface of Jupiter between 03:39 and 06:03 UT. |
| 14th | At around 05:30 UT Ganymede and its shadow begins its transit across the surface of Jupiter. |
| 15th | The planet Saturn changes position in the sky moving out of the constellation Aquarius and back to Pisces. |
| 17th | The moon Titan comes back round Saturn at approx 20:23 UT. |
| 18th | It is a New Moon this evening. |
| 23rd | Saturn, at mag.+0.7, will be 2.2˚ south-west of Neptune (mag.+7.9) whilst our 24%-lit waxing Moon sits 5.9˚ north-east of Saturn. |
| 25th | The lunar clair-obscure effects of X and V should be visible on our Moons surface around 17:00 UT. |
| 26th | The moon Callisto will transit Jupiter between 21:07 and on the 27th at 01:10 whilst its shadow will be seen between 00:58 and 05:06 UT. |
| 27th | At about 21:20, our 68%-lit waxing gibbous Moon will be crossing the northern side of the Pleiades open cluster. |
| 29th | Mercury at mag.-1.2 and Venus at mag.-3.8 will be separated byy 41 arcminutes BUT they are also 5.7˚ from the Sun REMEMBER TO USE APPROPRIATE EQUIPMENT SUITABLE FOR SOLAR OBSERVATIONS !!! |
| 31st | Early morning should see our 95%-lit waxing gibbous Moon 3.1˚ north of Jupiter at mag.-2.5. |