Night Sky Photography -- 01-20-2026 -- Jupiter Inside The Winter Circle

Late last night -- or early this morning, depending on how y'all look at it -- at about 90 minutes after midnight I captured a lovely shot of Jupiter inside the Winter Circle (also known as the Winter Hexagon) in the southwestern night sky.

Finding Jupiter for stargazers in the Northern Hemisphere will be easy this year. The 5th and largest planet in our Solar System will remain inside the Winter Circle in our night sky for the rest of winter 2026 in North America as its orbit will take it further inside the circle and will remain a part of the Constellation Gemini the Twins with the bright stars Castor and Pollux nearby.

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The Cardinals Of The New Year

 

The first feathered backyard visitors of 2026 are a lovely pair of male and female Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) that showed up to enjoy my feeders.  The females are brownish-gray/tan with warm red (almost orange-looking) wing and tail feathers. The males are bright red with the distinctive black mask of feathers around the beak and eyes.

The cardinal is also the official State Bird of North Carolina, though they are common across both Carolinas, as well as the eastern part of the United States and Mexico.

Here are the photos I took of these beautiful birds from the first week of January 2026.

As you can see in my last photo, my little furry buddy, Loki, loves to watch the birds eating from the bushes. I will have more photos of these and other beautiful visitors to my backyard bird feeders -- and possibly more of Loki too -- coming soon. 

Come back soon, y'all! ~Loki

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Night Sky Photography -- 01-01-2026 -- The Full Wolf Moon & Jupiter

 

Good evening fellow stargazers!

The first Full Moon of the year 2026 -- the Full Wolf Moon here in North America -- is also the first supermoon of the year. Our beautiful Luna was at her perigee (the Moon's closest point to Earth in its orbit)  at 225,130 miles (362,312 kilometers) away, making it appear significantly larger and brighter than usual.

In the evening sky it rose in the east along with Jupiter, the largest planet in our Solar System. Jupiter is also really close to Earth in its orbit around the Sun. The large planet will reach its closest point for the year on Friday, January 9th, when it reaches opposition (when Earth passes between Jupiter and the Sun) will be about 393 million miles (633 million km) away, making it exceptionally bright and visible pretty much all month long. 

Jupiter is very close in the night sky to the twin stars Pollux and Castor in the Constellation Gemini the Twins and will continue to be throughout the month of January.

The following are the photos I took on the evening of January 3rd of the meeting between all of these heavenly bodies....including capturing three of Jupiter's moons: Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede just visible in the photographs. These include closeups of the Full Wolf Supermoon, and a lovely shot through the trees with my U.S. Flag in the foreground.

First Moonrise of the New Year!

A beautiful photo I took of the first moonrise of 2026 just above the tops of the bare trees in the first late afternoon of New Year's Day here in South Carolina.  

On Saturday, January 3rd, the first Full Moon -- also known as the Full Wolf Moon here in North America -- will be a large and beautiful supermoon that will appear near the planet Jupiter and the two brightest stars of the Constellation Gemini the Twins: Pollux and Castor in the night sky. I'm hopeful that, God and good skies willing, to be able to capture a shot of the event tomorrow evening.