While you’ve been sleeping, a comet has been sneaking up on you. In the wee hours of the morning, Comet Catalina has been sailing through the rising constellations. But after New Year’s, the comet enters the evening sky, starting 2016 around the star Arcturus, which can be found by following the curve in the Big Dipper’s handle to the horizon. You still need to be up until midnight to see it early in the month. Fortunately it moves fairly quickly, leaping higher into northern skies and reaching the last star in the Big Dipper’s handle on January 15. 

The Big Dipper (Ursa Major) is a circumpolar object, or one that circles the Pole Star and never sets for observers in the Northern Hemisphere. Therefore, once the comet gets into Ursa Major, you can see it as soon as it gets dark. That is, provided you have a pair of binoculars and the comet doesn’t dim too much. 

The comet has already rounded the sun and is on its way out of the solar system when it makes its closest pass to Earth on January 17 at 67.4 million miles distant. You can continue to track the comet as it cuts between the Big and Little Dippers for the rest of January. Photos of Comet Catalina show it to have two tails, a dust tail and ion tail that flow in nearly opposite directions. 

Mercury has entered the evening sky for the beginning of the year, but only for about the first week. Look for the closest planet to the sun just after sunset in the west-southwest. Saturn, Venus, and Mars are in the morning sky, and the last planet visible without optical aid, Jupiter, is in both the evening and morning sky. Jupiter rises in the late evening behind Leo the Lion, and you can catch the moon by the King of Planets on January 27. 

Most stargazers observe in the evening, but in January, all the planets will be in the morning sky at the same time. Find Mercury near the rising sun in the east, then brilliant Venus, followed by Saturn, Mars, and finally Jupiter, which is almost on the western horizon. The planets can be seen together into February as well for those who rise early enough to have a peek. 

The first Full Moon of 2016 occurs on January 23 at 5:46 pm Pacific Time: the Wolf Moon will be howling in the east as it rises at nearly 100 percent lit that evening. But for more lunar fun, keep an eye on the moon on January 19 when it slides by the bright star Aldebaran in Taurus, and for some viewers the star will momentarily disappear, a phenonomon known as an occultation.