{"id":3535,"date":"2025-12-27T23:28:58","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T23:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/?p=3535"},"modified":"2025-12-27T23:29:01","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T23:29:01","slug":"the-starry-sky-in-january-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/en\/archive\/3535","title":{"rendered":"The starry sky in January 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/VdS-Sternkarten_2026_01-1024x722-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"722\" src=\"https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/VdS-Sternkarten_2026_01-1024x722-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3534\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.4182650278533284;width:738px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/VdS-Sternkarten_2026_01-1024x722-1.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/VdS-Sternkarten_2026_01-1024x722-1-300x212.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/VdS-Sternkarten_2026_01-1024x722-1-768x542.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/VdS-Sternkarten_2026_01-1024x722-1-18x12.jpg 18w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-70fe1e51456c96392e7e8f6c11625cbc wp-block-paragraph\"><br>On the January star chart - it is valid for 15.1., 10 p.m. - you can recognize the best-known winter constellation, the&nbsp;<strong>Orion<\/strong>. Its seven stars are all very bright. You can easily imagine the human body of the sky hunter in the shape they form. Below the three \u201ebelt stars\u201c, the pale, shimmering Orion Nebula can be seen with binoculars. The lower right star of Orion, Rigel, is also the lower right corner of the&nbsp;<strong>Winter hexagons<\/strong>. The winter hexagon is not a constellation, but a large figure made up of six bright stars from different constellations. Clockwise, Rigel in Orion is followed first by Sirius (in the constellation <strong>Big dog<\/strong>), then Prokyon (in the&nbsp;<strong>Small dog<\/strong>), Castor (in the&nbsp;<strong>Twins<\/strong>), Kapella (in the&nbsp;<strong>Carter<\/strong>), and finally Aldebaran in the&nbsp;<strong>Bull<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-a7bac90df498e4530e4c6155db68dfb3 wp-block-paragraph\">The&nbsp;<strong>Winter Milky Way<\/strong>&nbsp;passes through the constellations of the Great Dog, Unicorn, Gemini, Taurus, Carthus, Perseus and Cassiopeia. It is not as bright as in summer, as we are currently looking towards the edge of our galaxy from Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-2caf415456dd63c8622f0ebfa8ba2470 wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The planets in January 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-12e150f51acbf22005f8edc52cb0e558 wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Mercury<\/strong>&nbsp;was only visible in the morning at the beginning of December 2025. In January 2026, the closest planet to the sun will also not be visible in the night sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-5eea0415d7815feba64a6a8da6370a27 wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Venus<\/strong>&nbsp;reaches its upper conjunction with the Sun on January 6 and is only visible in the daytime sky in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-4c852f590f85e32ba2fd69cea07056bb wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Mars<\/strong>&nbsp;is in conjunction with the Sun on January 9 - the red planet is therefore not visible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-be6359338267ab5f1c139b9d41434428 wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Jupiter<\/strong>&nbsp;comes into opposition on January 10 in the constellation Gemini. The giant planet therefore offers optimal observation conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-3cc68addef28dc2814ac131a833f40de wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Saturn<\/strong>&nbsp;moves from the constellation of Aquarius into the constellation of Pisces and is an object in the evening sky. Its distance from Neptune decreases over the course of the month. On January 23, Saturn is close to the waxing moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-932f8fdc956dd87b217962a962d193d1 wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Uranus<\/strong>&nbsp;in the constellation Taurus is in the weeks following opposition and can therefore still be seen south of the Pleiades for most of the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-21d9a7b0b2f2c8446df7ab38a8821903 wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Neptune<\/strong>&nbsp;in the constellation of Pisces is located not far from Saturn and, like the ringed planet, is an object for the evening hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-247a68f46e780ed9dfe259de4d6034dc wp-block-paragraph\">The moon phases in January 2026<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"122\" src=\"https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/VdS-Mondphasen_2026_01-1024x122.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3533\" style=\"aspect-ratio:8.392831272696421;width:820px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/VdS-Mondphasen_2026_01-1024x122.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/VdS-Mondphasen_2026_01-300x36.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/VdS-Mondphasen_2026_01-768x91.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/VdS-Mondphasen_2026_01-1536x182.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/VdS-Mondphasen_2026_01-18x2.jpg 18w, https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/VdS-Mondphasen_2026_01.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-c2ce7f790ac02401ba3e346ac080679f wp-block-paragraph\"><br>In modified form from: <a href=\"https:\/\/sternfreunde.de\/astronomie-entdecken\/der-sternenhimmel\/aktuelle-sternbilder-und-planeten\/der-sternenhimmel-im-januar\/\">The starry sky in January 2026 - Vereinigung der Sternfreunde e.V.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the January star chart - it is valid for 15.1., 10 p.m. - you can see the most famous winter constellation, Orion, in a southerly direction. Its seven stars are all very bright. In the shape they form, you can...<\/p>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-die-himmelsvorschau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3535"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3539,"href":"https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535\/revisions\/3539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sternwarte-zweibruecken.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}