You’ve probably stepped outside after dinner, looked up at a piercingly bright "star" that doesn't twinkle, and wondered if it was a plane or a satellite. Honestly, it’s usually Jupiter. Tonight, Friday, January 16, 2026, the sky is putting on a bit of a show, but if you're expecting a perfect line-up of every planet in the solar system, you're going to be disappointed. Stargazing isn't like a movie. It's subtle. It's about knowing exactly where to glance before the horizon swallows the best views.
The big news right now is that we are just six days past Jupiter's opposition. That means the gas giant is essentially at its peak performance for the year. It's big, it's bold, and it’s hanging out in the constellation Gemini, outshining every actual star in the vicinity. But while Jupiter is the loud neighbor, Saturn is quietly making an exit. If you want to catch the ringed planet, you've got to be fast.
Planets in Sky Tonight: The Early Evening Hustle
If you wait until 9:00 PM to start looking, you’ve already missed half the cast. The solar system is currently split between "early birds" and "all-nighters."
Saturn and the Fading Blue Giant
Right as the sun dips below the southwest horizon, Saturn is your primary target. It’s currently glowing at a magnitude of roughly +1.0 in the constellation Pisces. It’s yellowish and steady. The thing is, Saturn is getting lower in the sky every single night. By about 90 minutes after sunset, it’s sitting about 35 degrees above the horizon.
Now, here is the expert tip: if you have a decent pair of binoculars, Saturn is actually acting as a celestial GPS for Neptune right now. Neptune is incredibly faint—about magnitude 7.8—so you won't see it with your naked eye. Ever. But tonight, Neptune is sitting just northeast of Saturn. They are in the same binocular field of view. Because Saturn is so bright, you can center it in your lenses and then look slightly "up and to the left" to find a tiny, blueish speck that looks like a star but doesn't quite behave like one. This is one of the last good weeks to see Neptune before it gets too buried in the horizon's haze.
Jupiter: The King of Gemini
Once you’ve said goodbye to Saturn, turn around and look east. You can’t miss Jupiter. It’s currently in Gemini, near the "twins" Castor and Pollux. Since it reached opposition on January 10, it is essentially as bright as it gets (-2.5 magnitude).
Why does this matter? Because Jupiter is up all night. It rises as the sun sets and doesn't tuck away until dawn. If you have a small telescope, tonight is a perfect night to check out the Galilean moons—Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. They look like tiny pinpricks of light dancing in a line. Even cheap binoculars can usually resolve them if you hold your hands steady enough.
📖 Related: Why the Man in Skinny Jeans Isn't Going Anywhere (Even if You Hate Them)
The Ones Hiding From You
Mercury and Venus are being difficult. Both of them reached "superior conjunction" earlier this month, which is basically a fancy way of saying they are on the opposite side of the sun from us. They’re lost in the glare.
You might hear some people claiming they saw Venus tonight. Kinda unlikely. While Venus is technically starting its transition into the evening sky, it’s sitting so low (maybe 1 degree above the horizon at sunset) that you’d need a perfectly flat horizon and zero trees to even glimpse it.
- Mars: Currently hidden. It’s buried in the sun’s morning glare.
- Uranus: High in the sky in Taurus. It’s magnitude 5.7, which is right on the edge of what the human eye can see. Find the Pleiades (that tiny cluster that looks like a "Little Dipper") and look south. It’ll look like a tiny, pale green dot in a telescope.
- Mercury: Invisible. It’s behind the sun.
Why Your Phone App Might Be Lying
Most people pull out an app, point it at the sky, and get frustrated when they don't see the colorful marble the screen is showing. Most apps don't account for atmospheric extinction—that's the "muck" near the horizon that dims planets. When a planet like Saturn is low, it’s shining through a lot more of Earth's air than when it's overhead.
Also, light pollution is the ultimate party pooper. If you’re in a city, Jupiter will still look great, but you can forget about seeing Uranus or the faint glow of the Beehive Cluster (M44) which is currently sitting just to the left of Jupiter in Cancer.
How to Actually See Something
- Let your eyes adjust. It takes 20 minutes for your "night vision" to kick in. Every time you look at your bright phone screen to check an app, you reset that timer. Use a red light filter if you can.
- Averted Vision. This sounds weird, but it works. To see faint things like Neptune or Uranus, don't look directly at them. Look slightly to the side. The edges of your retina are more sensitive to light than the center.
- The "Wobble" Test. If you aren't sure if it's a planet or a star, look at the light. Stars are point-sources of light that get disrupted by our atmosphere (they twinkle). Planets are actual disks, even if they look like points, and their light is much more stable.
What’s Coming Next?
The sky is a moving target. If you miss the Saturn-Neptune pairing tonight, don't sweat it too much—they’ll be close for the rest of the month. However, keep an eye on January 22nd and 23rd. The crescent moon is going to slide right past Saturn, making for a much better photo op.
For tonight, just focus on the "Big Three": Saturn early in the southwest, Uranus high in the south (if you have binoculars), and Jupiter dominating the east.
Actionable Steps for Tonight
- Check the Weather: Use an app like Astrospheric or Clear Outside. Standard weather apps are useless for astronomy because they don't track "transparency" or "seeing" (the stability of the air).
- Time your Exit: Be outside by 5:45 PM local time if you want to see Saturn. It sets surprisingly fast.
- Find the Winter Hexagon: Jupiter is currently the brightest "vertex" of this massive shape in the sky. It’s a great way to orient yourself among the stars of Orion, Taurus, and Canis Major.
- Grab Binoculars: Even 7x50 or 10x50 bird-watching binoculars will change the game. You'll go from seeing one bright dot (Jupiter) to seeing a planet with four tiny moons.
The universe doesn't care if you're watching, but it’s pretty cool that you can see a giant gas ball 400 million miles away just by walking onto your porch. Go look up.