Keep the New Year’s celebrations going with these dazzling displays in the sky.
The month marks the predicted beginning of solar maximum, our current solar cycles roughly 11-year height of activity.
Even better: this years solar maximumcouldproduce the most powerful northern lights displays in decades.
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(Heres how to take advantage of it, fromthe best northern lights hotelstobucket-list aurora borealis destinations.)
From shooting stars to prime planet sightings, heres what to watch for this month.
The best viewing time in the Americas will be around midnight, before the half-illuminated moon rises.
Trystargazing binocularsor a telescope to enhance your view, but point them away from the eastern sky before sunrise.
Continue admiring Mercury, our solar systems fastest-moving planet, throughout the week.
See the Pleiades star cluster above and left of the moon.
If you have a pair of binoculars handy, look for aqua-tinted Uranus halfway between the moon and Pleiades.
The shower peaks around 5 p.m.
ET on Jan. 19.
Watch near the Ursa Minor constellation that night and evening to see up to three meteors per hour.
ET on Jan. 25,according to The Old Farmers Almanac.
The full wolf moonthe name for Januarys bright orbwill rise above the northeastern horizon around sunset.
