Bhanu PrakashAll Sky NotesSky Notes · Monthly sky · Jan 2027
The night sky over Hyderabad: January 2027
The Quadrantid meteors, Orion and its nebula high in the evening, Jupiter and Mars near Regulus, Saturn sinking in the west.
By Bhanu Prakash, astronomer · Hyderabad
Highlights
- 3–4 Jan: Quadrantid meteor shower peak, best in the hours before dawn.
- 8 Jan: New Moon. The best week of the month for faint stars and the Orion Nebula.
- 22 Jan: Full Moon.
Orion at its best
January evenings put Orion high in the south-east by 9 PM. Find the three stars of the belt, then the sword below it, and the fuzzy middle “star” of the sword: that is the Orion Nebula, 1,344 light-years away. Binoculars show it as a glowing cloud; a small telescope shows the four Trapezium stars at its heart. Our note See the Orion Nebula with your own eyes has step-by-step directions.
Quadrantids
The Quadrantids peak on the night of 3–4 January. Their peak is short, so the best rates last only a few hours. The radiant, in the old constellation Quadrans Muralis near Boötes, is low from Hyderabad until late in the night, so watch in the dark hours before dawn. The Moon is a thin waning crescent that rises shortly before sunrise.
Planets this month
Jupiter now rises around 9 PM, earlier each night, and is high in the south in the early morning. Mars follows about an hour later. Both are in Leo, near Regulus, and are getting brighter as Earth catches up with them.
Saturn is in the south-west after sunset and sets by about 10–11 PM, so look early.
Venus is still the morning star, low in the south-east before dawn.
Times are for Hyderabad and rounded to the nearest few minutes. Planet positions are calculated on this site and are good to about a degree. Check the Tonight’s Sky panel for any night.