Skywatching in 2024: Key Dates and Locations

Get ready for an exciting year of stargazing! If you’ve got celestial observation on your New Year’s to-do list, some fantastic opportunities are coming your way.

by TAUHID SHAH: January 21: Sunday: 23:58 PM| 2024 Updated.

Start off the year by looking up on January 17th. You’ll catch a beautiful sight as the Moon lines up with Jupiter in the high southwestern sky for a couple of evenings. Plus, after almost a year of being hard to spot, Mars is slowly getting brighter in the eastern sky just before sunrise.

One of the most anticipated events for scientists and space enthusiasts is the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. This marks the end of an era for visible astronomical wonders in the contiguous United States until 2044. During the eclipse, you’ll see a stunning display of bright stars and planets.

Bill Cooke, overseeing NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office in Alabama, is keeping a close eye on Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks. This comet is expected to get brighter over the next few months, possibly becoming visible without a telescope during the eclipse. Cooke says, “Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks had a burst of activity in July, and the sunlight has shaped its gaseous and dusty cloud into a horseshoe, giving it a kind of diabolical look with horns. The upcoming spring promises a sight that would have scared our ancestors – a solar eclipse turning day into night, accompanied by a ‘diabolical’ comet. Truly exciting!”

_Cooke also shares his top three meteor showers for 2024:

1. Perseids in mid-August – A captivating meteor shower without interference from the moon.
2. Eta Aquariids in early May – Expect an exceptional year with rates as high as one meteor per minute for Southern Hemisphere observers.
3. Geminids in mid-December – A lot of bright meteors are anticipated, overshadowing any challenges from the moon._

And this is just a glimpse of what the New Year has in store. Get ready for supermoons, lunar eclipses, planetary alignments, a new comet, and more celestial wonders that promise a lot of excitement.

All information is taken from blogs.nasa.gov

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