January starts with a bang, the start of the new year bringing with it opportunities for growth and reflection. If one of your goals for 2025 is to broaden your horizons about the vast universe, setting aside some time for sky watching on January evenings is a good place to start.

Lucky for you, there's plenty on tap, starting right out of the gate with the Quadrantids meteor shower, which will be at its peak the night of Jan. 2 to 3. The Quadrantids can be a strong meteor shower, with 25 or more meteors an hour, but it often doesn't live up to its potential because of January's frequently lackluster weather, according to the American Meteor Society. 

The Quadrantids begin Dec. 26 and lasts until Jan. 16, but the peak period from Jan. 2 to 3 is the best viewing time. During this year's peak period, the moon will only be 11% full, creating optimal viewing conditions — as long as the weather cooperates. After the Quadrantids draws to a close, we won't see any shooting stars associated with meteor showers until April, when the Lyrids meteor shower begins. 

If you miss the Quadrantids, there are several opportunities to view our planetary neighbors in January as well. First up, Mars will be at opposition the night of Jan. 15 to 16. Planets are at opposition when Earth sits directly between them and the sun, the BBC reports. This is when Mars is best illuminated by the sun, providing some of the best opportunities to view it. Mars is only at opposition about once every 25 or 26 months, so after January these peak viewing opportunities won't present themselves again until February 2027 and March 2029. 

Mars has been visible in the night sky for a few months now and will continue to be so for a few more months, but it will be at its brightest when it is at opposition. The best to time view it is late in the night through dawn. It will look like a reddish star in the sky. Mars is called the red planet because of the reddish hue it gets from iron oxide in dust covering the planet's surface. 

On the night of Jan. 18, Venus and Saturn will be at conjunction, appearing very near each other — less than half a degree apart, National Geographic reports. The best time to view them will be about a half hour after the sun sets in the southwest sky. Venus will be the bigger and brighter of the two, with the dimmer Saturn just to its left. 

The full moon for January will be on Jan. 13, with the moon hitting its fullest point at 4:27 p.m. The January full moon is known as the wolf moon because it's the time of year when a wolf's howl is most likely to be heard, the Old Farmer's Almanac reports. Other nicknames for the January full moon include the cold moon, frost exploding moon and freeze up moon. The Assiniboine people call it the center moon, a reference to January being the middle of the coldest season, while the Dakota call it the hard moon, which refers to the hardened layer of ice that often develops atop snow.