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What's in the Sky in December 2026: Moon, Planets, Meteors and What to Photograph

By Still DarkPublished Sep 12, 2026Updated Sep 12, 202611 min read

December 2026 has the best meteor night of the year and the biggest full Moon of the year, ten days apart. Those two are the main events in what's in the sky in December 2026. The Geminids peak on December 13–14 under a crescent Moon that sets by mid-evening, and the Cold Moon on December 24 is full seven hours before perigee, the closest full Moon of 2026. The solstice falls on December 21. Venus is the morning planet and Saturn the evening one. Jupiter and Mars rise together in Leo before midnight, both heading for February oppositions. If you only go out once, make it the Geminids from a dark site after moonset.

What's in the sky in December 2026, date by date

All times are UTC, so convert to your local time.

December 2026 full Moon: the Cold supermoon and the dark window

Last quarter December 1 (06:08 UTC), new December 9 (00:51), first quarter December 17 (05:42), full December 24 (01:28), last quarter again December 30 (18:59). December's full Moon is the Cold Moon, also called the Long Night Moon, and the second name fits, because it's up longer and climbs higher than any other full Moon of the year, opposite the low December Sun.

It's also the closest full Moon of 2026. It's full at 01:28 UTC on December 24 and at perigee at 08:30 UTC at 221,612 miles, and it's about 221,668 miles away at the instant of full phase. It counts as a supermoon under any of the usual definitions. The disc spans about 33.5′, some 14% wider and 30% brighter than the year's apogee full Moon in May. You won't notice the size by eye, but you will in a telephoto frame next to a building.

The dark window. The Moon-free stretch runs from about December 4 to 14, so it covers the Geminids. Early on the waning crescent rises a couple of hours before dawn, and later the waxing crescent is down by 9 or 10 pm. A second window opens from December 29, when the last-quarter Moon rises after midnight.

Planets visible in December 2026

Mercury is at the end of its November morning apparition (greatest western elongation November 20, superior conjunction January 1, 2027). On December 1 it's magnitude −0.5 and 17° from the Sun, very low in the south-east at dawn, and it's gone by the second week.

Venus is the morning star at magnitude −4.5, fading to −4.3. Mid-month it rises nearly four hours before the Sun and stands almost 30° high in the south-east at civil twilight from mid-northern latitudes, on its way to greatest western elongation on January 3, 2027. That's high enough to photograph above the haze near the horizon. The crescent Moon passes 6.6° from it on the morning of December 5 (photographing Venus).

Mars is a late-night and morning object in Leo, brightening from magnitude +0.5 to −0.1 during the month on its way to opposition on February 19, 2027. It rises around 10 pm local mid-month. The disc is only 8–10″, so shoot wide frames with Jupiter and Regulus this month and leave surface detail for February.

Jupiter shares Leo with Mars, a few degrees from Regulus, and at magnitude −2.1 to −2.2 it's the brightest thing in the east in the late evening. It's up by about 9:30 pm local mid-month. It's stationary around December 12, then retrogrades toward its February 11, 2027 opposition.

Saturn is the evening planet. It's magnitude +0.7 to +0.8 on the Pisces–Cetus border, about 48° high in the south at 6 pm from mid-northern latitudes and setting around 1 am. The rings are nearly edge-on and look thin. The tilt reaches its minimum of about 6° on December 6.

Uranus (magnitude +5.6, Taurus) is a fortnight past opposition and up all night for binoculars, and Neptune (magnitude +7.9, Pisces) is about 6° west of Saturn.

Meteor showers in December 2026: Geminids and Ursids

Geminids, peak December 13–14. Predicted maximum 05:44 UTC on the 14th. The Geminids are the richest annual shower, zenithal hourly rate 120 (some forecasts say 150), with slow, bright meteors from a radiant near Castor that's highest around 2 am local. The parent body is the asteroid 3200 Phaethon. This year the Moon is a 21% waxing crescent that sets at 8:42 pm in New York on the 13th, and about as early elsewhere. After that the sky is dark until dawn, so conditions are excellent. Dress warmly.

Ursids, peak December 22. Predicted maximum 20:59 UTC, radiant near Kochab in the Little Dipper. The usual rate is 5–10 an hour, and a 98% Moon is up all night, so conditions are poor. The next dark-sky shower is the Quadrantids on January 3–4, 2027, covered in the January 2027 sky guide.

From the southern hemisphere the Geminid radiant is low and clears the northern horizon around midnight. The Ursids never rise.

Conjunctions and close approaches

• Dec 5, morning: Moon and Venus, 6.6°. Crescent with earthshine, Venus above it in the south-east from about 4 am. Use 50–85 mm.
• Dec 18, evening: Moon and Saturn, 6.2°. Expose for the Moon, and Saturn will show as a point. Use 100–135 mm.
• Dec 21, 22:37 UTC: Moon and the Pleiades, 1.0°. A 93% Moon on the cluster's southern edge. Use 300–600 mm, with one exposure for the Moon and a longer one for the stars.
• Dec 27, evening: Moon and Jupiter, 1.5°. Rising together about 10 pm local with Regulus and Mars close by. Use 135–200 mm.
• Dec 28: Moon and Mars, 4.8°. The same Moon one night on, Mars to its upper left. Use 85–135 mm.

The two-exposure method that works for all of these is in the conjunction guide.

Night sky this month: Orion and the winter Milky Way

At 10 pm local in mid-December, from mid-northern latitudes, the winter sky fills the east and south. Orion is up in the south-east, and the Orion Nebula (M42) is an easy naked-eye smudge and a good 200–400 mm target. The Pleiades (M45) are at their highest of the year around 10–11 pm, near the zenith from 40° N. Gemini follows. The Double Cluster is high in the north-east, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is still near the zenith in early evening, and Sirius rises about 8 pm mid-month.

The Milky Way's core can't be seen from the north until spring. What's up instead is the winter Milky Way, the fainter outer arm from Cassiopeia through Auriga, between Orion and Gemini, and down past Sirius. It needs a dark site and the Moon-free nights of December 4–14, and it's fainter than the summer band, so it won't stand out on the camera screen.

From the southern hemisphere, Orion stands upside-down high in the north, the Magellanic Clouds are high in the south, and the nights are short.

Sun and twilight

In New York the Sun sets at 4:29 pm on December 1, reaches its earliest setting around December 8, and is back to 4:38 pm by December 31. Sunrise moves from 7:00 to 7:19 am and is still getting later after the solstice. The earliest sunset and latest sunrise don't fall on the solstice itself. Astronomical night lasts 11 h 17 min on the 1st (6:06 pm to 5:23 am) and 11 h 25 min on the 31st. In London sunset is 3:54 pm on the 1st and 4:00 pm on the 31st, with just over 12 hours of astronomical night at the solstice.

The solstice is at 20:50 UTC on December 21. No daylight-saving changes fall in December in the US or EU. ISS passes come in evening or morning runs depending on where you are. Check Sky Events → Satellites for this month's window at your location.

What to photograph this month

Three things we'd go out for.

1. The Geminids, December 13–14. Be at a dark site by 10 pm, after the crescent sets. Use 14–24 mm at f/2.8, 15–20 s, ISO 3200, with the intervalometer running until dawn. The meteor shower guide covers stacking the catches onto one frame.
2. The Cold supermoon rising, December 23 and 24. On the 23rd the Moon rises in New York at 3:58 pm, half an hour before sunset. On the 24th it rises at 5:15 pm, in deep twilight. You get two different pictures, and the 23rd is the easier one to expose. See the supermoon guide and the Moon-behind-a-landmark guide. Use 300–600 mm.
3. Orion and the winter Milky Way, December 4–14. Any clear evening after 10 pm will do. Shoot a 24–35 mm frame from Sirius up through Orion to the Pleiades, tracked or stacked. See the Milky Way guide and the stacking guide.

FAQ

Sources and further reading

• Fred Espenak, Astropixels — Sky Event Almanac 2026 (GMT) (Moon phases, apogee/perigee, Geminid/Ursid dates, solstice, Moon–Pleiades and Moon–Jupiter, Mercury elongation; the 2027 almanac for the Jan 1 superior conjunction).
• timeanddate — Moon Phases 2026, UTC and Sunrise and sunset in New York, December 2026 (phase times, sunset/sunrise and twilight, moonrise on Dec 13, 23 and 24).
• EarthSky — Geminid meteor shower 2026 and Ursid meteor shower 2026 (peak times, rates, Moon verdicts, radiants, parent bodies).
• Obliquity SkyEye — Saturn in 2026, Venus in 2026 and Mars in 2026 (Moon–planet separations, ring-tilt minimum, Venus constellation change).
• ALPO, Jeff Beish — The 2026–2027 aphelic apparition of Mars (Mars magnitude and disc size, the February 19, 2027 opposition at 13.8″).
• timeanddate — Cold Moon (the Cold / Long Night / Moon Before Yule names; full-Moon distance and largest full Moon of 2026).