The Ellensburg, WA sky for the week of January 24, 2026

Saturday: Saturn is about two and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above the southwestern horizon at 6:30 p.m. The planet Neptune is less than a half a fist above it in the sky. Over the next two weeks, Saturn will be moving towards Neptune in the sky.

Sunday: Are you interested in participating in astronomy research? You don’t need to go back to school. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars getting a fake degree from an online university. The scientists working on the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter would like your input on which objects they should target for close-up pictures. While you may think the scientists are just trying to build interest in their project by having people look at pretty pictures, there is a real scientific benefit to having many eyes searching for interesting targets. There aren’t enough scientists to carefully inspect all the low power images. And surprisingly, computers are not nearly as effective as people in making nuanced judgments of images. So, go to https://www.uahirise.org/ and click on the HiWish button. You’ll be on your way to suggesting close-up targets for NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Unfortunately, Mars will be too close to the Sun in the sky to be easily visible until May.

Monday: Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, rises at 5:30 p.m. By 7:00 p.m., it is one fist above the southeastern horizon.

Tuesday: Sure, you can look at the planets with your naked eyes. Or even a small telescope. But do you ever wonder what the planets look like up close? This video takes you on a short tour of the surface of each planet, using images and landers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF1E_u5EvZg.

Wednesday: Winter is a good time to see the thick band of the Milky Way galaxy. It arches high in the early evening sky at 8:00 p.m. starting in the southeast by Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. Climbing from Sirius through the "horns" of Taurus to the bright star Capella straight overhead, it drops down toward M-shaped Cassiopeia in the north and the tail of Cygnus the swan and its bright star Deneb, in the northwest.

Thursday: Mercury is too close to the Sun in the sky to be easily seen. Luckily, the European Space Agency spacecraft called BepiColombo recently sent back the best ever images of Mercury. Go to https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/BepiColombo to see the images and learn more about Mercury from a young child-friendly video.

Friday: Jupiter is less than a fist to the lower right of the moon at 7:00 p.m. They are four fists above the eastern horizon, in the constellation Gemini. The two brightest stars in the constellation are about one fist to the left of the moon, with Pollux being a little below the moon and Castor being a little bit above.

The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up-to-date information about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm. All times are Pacific Time unless noted.