Despite a year filled with lockdowns and social isolation, the starry skies of 2020 gave us solace and enthralled us with a parade of eye-catching celestial events. The astronomical calendar this past year was packed full of memorable sights, including the surprise appearance of the bright comet NEOWISE, the decade’s best views of Mars, a Halloween blue moon, and a much-anticipated historically close encounter between Jupiter and Saturn.
Scores of amazing astronomical phenomena are also in the offing throughout 2021. Here are our picks for the predicted celestial events worth circling on your calendar in the new year.
February 11: Venus-Jupiter conjunction
Early risers will be rewarded with a close encounter between two of the brightest planets in our skies: Venus and Jupiter. Both planets will appear as brilliant dots to the naked eye, and the pair will seem to be so close in the sky that they will be visible at the same time through a backyard telescope. As an added bonus, the planet Saturn will be drifting to the pair’s upper right.
Be prepared to scout out a good observing spot with an unobstructed view of the southeast horizon, as this celestial pairing will occur near the rising sun, and spotting it will be all about timing. The trick is to allow the planets to rise high enough in the morning sky to observe them just before the light of dawn drowns out your view. The best time to see them will be about 20 to 30 minutes before sunrise. People in the Southern Hemisphere will have the best opportunity to see the event because the planets will be positioned farther from the sun and therefore higher in the sky.
March 9 and 10: Quadruple formation
An impressive cosmic huddle will greet sky-watchers around the globe as four worlds cluster in the southeast morning sky. Mercury, Jupiter, and Saturn will all appear in near-perfect alignment, while the nearby crescent moon will frame the trio of planets. Each planet will appear as a brilliant dot, with Mercury being the faintest and Jupiter the brightest—all easily visible to the naked eye.
Through binoculars, stargazers will be able to spot Jupiter’s four largest moons, while a small telescope will reveal Saturn’s rings. Because of Earth’s position relative to Mercury and the sun, only half of the innermost planet's disk will appear illuminated to us. As a result, Mercury will look like a miniature version of the quarter moon through the telescope.
May 26: “Blood moon” total lunar eclipse
Across western North America, western South America, Australia, and southeast Asia, people will be able to witness the moon blush red as it undergoes a total lunar eclipse. This dramatic astronomical event happens when the sun, Earth, and moon are precisely aligned so that our planet's shadow completely blankets the moon’s face.
