Monthly sky briefing

January 2026

In January 2026, Jupiter was the brightest thing in the evening sky. The full moon fell on 3 Jan. The Quadrantids peaked around 3 Jan. 9 Starlink trains went up — a well-known source of "string of lights" reports in the days after.

Everything above is computed from public data — planet and moon positions, the launch log and the report catalogue. It doesn’t explain any single report; it just shows how much ordinary sky was overhead. What can’t be pinned to a planet, a launch or the moon is the part worth a closer look.