The New Year started with Mercury leading the charge as morning star, and just recently, the waxing crescent moon swept passed Venus and Saturn, on its way to full phase and an occultation of Mars, where it finds Mars moving retrograde opposite the dwarf planet Pluto.
So, what else is going on in the stars this year?
There will be no drama like last April’s total solar eclipse with the luminous aurora it sparked one month later, but there will be a Total Lunar Eclipse in March, visible throughout the United States.
The best thing to look for in 2025 meteor shower-wise is not the Perseids in August, due to a nearly full moon, but the Orionids in October, the meteor shower of the giant. These stars fall through the sky from the tail of Halley’s comet and will peak under a waning moon.
Venus is our beautiful evening star now, but will spend most of 2025 as a morning star, following its retrograde motion in March. Of all the planets, Venus spends the least amount of time in retrograde, and such a time is particularly related to the revelation of mystery wisdom.
Mars is retrograde now, and will resume direct motion in late February, finally finishing in May this year the review its been doing since October last year.
As for the other naked-eye planets, Jupiter and Saturn, they move slowly enough to stay in the same region of sky for many months, and the best time to see them is at their respective oppositions with the Sun, which will happen with Saturn in September.
Emily Dickinson, on why we follow the stars into the new year:
Go thy great way.
The stars thou meetest
Are even as thyself.
For what are stars,
But asterisks to point a human life.
