Venus and Mars are now too close to the sun to be visible, but Saturn and Neptune can be found high in the south as darkness falls giving you plenty of time to observe the pair in your telescope. The first quarter moon appears to the right of Saturn on December 26. Uranus reached opposition last month but remains visible close to the Pleiades and is observable throughout almost all night. Jupiter doesn’t reach opposition until January 10, 2026, but is easily visible from mid evening as it rises higher in the sky all night. It’s close to the stars, Castor and Pollux in Gemini. Mercury can be seen in the pre-dawn twilight and can be found looking southeast where it’ll be visible 30 minutes before sunrise for most of the month. It’s best seen December 7-10, when it will be its brightest and farthest from the sun in the sky (greatest elongation). After that, it will start to fade and drop closer to the horizon, but the waning crescent moon will be to its upper right on December 17, 2025.
Don’t miss the Geminid Meteor Shower
the night of December 13 into December 14. This is the best meteor shower of 2025, producing about 120 meteors per hour. More than any other shower. The moon is a waning crescent when the shower peaks in the early morning hours of the14th. This means that the fainter meteors won’t be drowned out by moonlight and you may see more meteors than usual. Gemini, the radiant constellation from which they appear to originate, rises a few hours after sunset, so you can start your meteor shower watch from around 8:00 p.m. on December 13. Dress warmly and find a dark location away from any lights, and enjoy the show. Under dark skies, any meteorshower without a full moon in the background is amazing to watch. But the Geminids are the best meteor shower of all.
You don’t need any telescopes and not even binoculars, just your eyes and some dark skies.
The Great Orion Nebula
Several thousand light years away is one of the most epic nebulae in the sky, Messier 42 or the Great Orion Nebula.
It is visible as a tiny misty patch just below the three stars of Orion’s belt, but a telescope will show a large greenish gray cloud with a tiny group of hot young stars, the trapezium, sparkling at its center. The Orion Nebula is sure to dazzle in whatever instrument you use to view it. It is simply splendid to view through an eyepiece.
The Hyades Cluster
In the heart of Taurus is a very beautiful star cluster that’s not too far away, the Hyades Cluster. If you follow the three stars of Orion’s belt upwards, you’ll come to a V-shaped group of stars. This is the Hyades star cluster, and it represents the head of Taurus, the bull. The reddish star is Aldebaran, the brightest star in the cluster and it marks the red eye of the bull. The Hyades star cluster is best seen with a pair of binoculars.
The Pleiades
Probably the best well known star cluster in the night sky is Messier 45, the Pleiades star cluster. To find it continue the line up from Orion’s belt through Aldebaran and you’ll come to a tiny group of stars that some say resembles a miniature Big Dipper. These stars are easily visible to the naked eye, even from light polluted skies, and they are a beautiful sight in binoculars and telescopes at very low magnification. Viewing the Pleiades star cluster through a pair of binoculars or an eyepiece is an awe inspiring experience. Hidden within this star cluster is a refelction nebula. The light from the stars in the cluster itself light up a cloud of dust resulting in a beautiful brilliant gray blue nebula. Try to see this nebula with your telescope. The seven sisters are shrouded in a misty grayish patch.
Messier 35, is an open star cluster that is relatively easy to find at the feet of Gemini, the twins. You can see it in 10x 50 binoculars which will show individual stars, while a telescope at low power will show hundreds more. Look for a pale golden blue pair on the cluster’s northern edge. When looking at these dimmer, tight clusters, the larger the aperture, the better, and the darker the skies, the better.
