What's Up: January 2025 Skywatching Tips from NASA

What are some skywatching highlights in January 2025?

This month, four bright planets greet you in the early evening. Venus and Saturn cozy up on the 17th and 18th, while Mars is at its brightest in the past two years. The Moon occults Mars for those in the U.S. and Eastern Canada on Jan. 13. Plus, the Quadrantid meteors peak on the morning of Jan. 3 before dawn.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is the agency’s latest infrared space telescope, adding new insights to targets first discovered and studied by infrared missions that came before it.

Infrared space telescope missions have built upon one another to reveal stars, galaxies, and all manner of cosmic objects with ever-increasing clarity. Here you will see images from the pioneering Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), launched in 1983, the Spitzer Space Telescope, launched in 2003, and the James Webb Space Telescope, which launched in 2021 and is sending back extremely detailed images today.