Unmissable Celestial Showdowns: Your Guide to 2025’s Skywatching Spectacles!

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Another year of celestial observation is here, and there is much to anticipate in 2025!

Here’s a summary of several significant astronomical occurrences — featuring multiple meteor showers, occultations of Mars and the Pleiades Star Cluster, a “ringless” Saturn, and the inaugural total lunar eclipse for the United States since 2022 — which will occur this year.

Space.com’s Night Sky column will offer more comprehensive coverage of many of these events as the dates approach.

Jan. 3: Quadrantid meteor shower — This meteor display, characterized by a very sharp peak, is expected to reach its zenith at 1400 GMT today. This timing is beneficial for the West Coast of North America, where dawn will commence just as the “Quads” reach their peak. A solitary observer at a dark sky location may witness anywhere from 60 to 120 meteors per hour. To the east, morning twilight and sunrise will interfere, yet a satisfactory number of these meteors may still be visible. The moon will not create any disruptions.

Related: Meteor showers: What is the next occurrence?

Jan. 9: The moon conceals the Pleiades — A waxing gibbous moon will move in front of this famed open star cluster during the early evening hours. The Pleiades will be ideally observed with binoculars or a small, low-power telescope. Stars will vanish along the dark section of the moon, then reappear along the bright side roughly an hour later.

Winter to early spring: “The Venus Show” — This most luminous of planets captivates evening skywatchers in January and February, setting nearly four hours after the sun, rising high into the western sky and becoming so extraordinarily bright that it can cast shadows. It will shift back toward the sun in March but will appear as a beautiful narrow crescent even through binoculars. Venus transitions to the morning light in April, subsequently reappearing as a stunning predawn object for early springtime.

Jan. 13: The moon obscures Mars — A full moon will eclipse Mars during the evening hours. Mars will be just two days away from opposition and will radiate nearly as brightly as Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.

Feb. 6: The moon obscures the Pleiades yet again — Once more, the moon will pass in front of the Pleiades cluster, but this time it will take place during the post-midnight hours, low in the west-northwest sky. The central and western U.S. will have the best vantage points; in the eastern U.S., this occurrence will either take place with the moon barely above the horizon or after the moon has disappeared.

March 13-14: Total lunar eclipse — This occurrence heavily favors the Americas, including Alaska and Hawaii, as it is this geographic area, home to over one billion individuals, that will be facing the moon as it begins its descent through Earth’s shadow. The lunar eclipse will mainly take place after midnight across the eastern half of North America, while those situated further west will predominantly see it during the late night hours of March 13.

March 23-May 6: Saturn’s rings primarily fade away — Seen through telescopes, the renowned ring system ofSaturn will appear to vanish. From our terrestrial viewpoint, the rings will align edge-on with Earth on March 23; thereafter, the rings will tilt, causing us to observe the southern half instead of the northern half. Nevertheless, sunlight continues to illuminate the northern section of the rings; the southern part remains in shadow, preventing visibility. We will need to wait until May 6, when sunlight finally starts to light up the southern portion of the ring system. They will then reemerge as a slender bright band across Saturn’s disk. However, for 44 days, the rings will be nearly undetectable, even through the most powerful telescopes.

Related: Best telescopes: Observe stars, galaxies, nebulas, planets and more

March 29: Partial solar eclipse — The moon’s dark shadow cone, which is where a total solar eclipse can be observed, will completely bypass Earth, passing roughly 180 miles (290 kilometers) above the North Pole. However, the moon’s outer shadow, or penumbra, will skim a portion of the Northern Hemisphere, leading to a partial eclipse that will be visible to varying degrees from northwest Africa, much of Europe (except for some eastern regions), and northwest Russia, along with Iceland, Greenland, and a section of eastern North America.

June 29: The moon and Mars conjunction — The moon and Mars will again have a close encounter. This time, the moon will be a waxing crescent, appearing to glide just below Mars during the evening hours, which has significantly dimmed since January. However, the pair will create a beautiful sight in the west-southwest sky as night falls.

July 20: A third Pleiades occultation — This could be the most visually striking moon/Pleiades event of 2025, strictly from an aesthetic perspective. A slender waning crescent moon will draw near the Seven Sisters during the pre-dawn hours in the Eastern U.S., but won’t start obscuring any of their stars until about an hour prior to sunrise as the sky starts to lighten. Further west, the sky will be darker, allowing you to easily observe as the moon hides and reveals members of this cluster. Using binoculars or a small, low-magnification telescope will amplify the “DaVinci glow” (Earthshine), giving the moon a remarkable 3D appearance.

TOP TELESCOPE SUGGESTION:

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Aug. 11-12: The moonlit Perseid meteors — Unfortunately, this year, this renowned meteor shower will be impeded by a radiant gibbous moon, which will rise around 9:20 p.m. on the night of Aug. 11 and 9:45 p.m. on Aug. 12, obscuring numerous fainter meteors. Nevertheless, the Perseids can sometimes generate brilliant fireballs or meteors that seem to burst while flying (termed bolides), making them worth the effort to observe despite the moon’s brightness. Such meteors can be quite dramatic, bright enough to capture attention even in moonlight.

Aug. 11-13: Venus/Jupiter pas de deux — A dance duet involving two performers — generally a male and a female — executing ballet movements together is referred to as a pas de deux, and Jupiter and Venus will showcase a cosmic interpretation of this over three successive mornings. On Aug. 11, the two brightest planets will rise adjacent to each other in the east-northeast approximately three hours prior to dawn. On Aug. 12, Venus will have noticeably shifted to Jupiter’s lower right as they come closest together, just 0.8 degrees apart. Lastly, on Aug. 13, the duo will diverge, with Venus now situated directly beneath Jupiter.

Sept. 7: Total lunar eclipse — Consider this as the counterpart to the lunar eclipse from last March. Once more, the moon will traverse directly into Earth’s shadow, and, on this occasion, individuals in central Africa and eastern Europe extending to eastern Asia, Japan, Indonesia, and Australia will be able to witness the phenomenon. Regrettably, the Americas will miss out, as the moon will be below the horizon and daytime will prevail when this eclipse is occurring.

Sept. 21: Partial eclipse of the sun — The moon’s external shadow, or penumbra, will affect a significant portion of the South Pacific and Southern Oceans. New Zealand will experience a notable solar obscuration shortly after local sunrise: 61% obscured for Auckland and 73% at Oban. An even greater fraction of the sun will be occluded over parts of Antarctica, yet likely the only spectators will be the penguins.

RELATED STORIES:

— Night sky for tonight: Observable planets, stars and more in this evening’s horizon

— When is the upcoming solar eclipse?

— Perseid meteor shower: When, where and how to observe it

Nov. 5: Supermoon — The moon will be officially full at 8:19 a.m. EST on this date. Additionally, since this month’s full moon coincides with the moon’s perigee — its nearest approach to Earth — roughly nine hours later, it will also be the biggest of the year. The moon will reach just 221,726 miles (356,833 km) from our globe, providing observers with a glimpse of an exceptionally large, exceptionally bright moon, affectionately termed a “supermoon.”

Dec. 14: Geminid meteors — This is potentially the most dependable and one of the finest meteor displays of the year. Under ideal conditions, as many as 75 slow, elegant Geminids may be witnessed per hour. This year, the moon, a waning crescent, presents minimal or no disturbance. The meteors seem to radiate from a region in the skies near the star Castor in the constellation Gemini (hence the name “Geminids”), which will be relatively high in the northeastern sky as early as 10 p.m. Even with the slender moon present, this meteor shower is still highly worthwhile to view. Don’t forget to dress warmly!

Joe Rao serves as an educator and guest lecturer at New York’s Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmers’ Almanac and other journals.