Notes
Notes
Short answers to questions people ask about the Moon, the stars and eclipses.
What is the brightest star in the night sky?
Sirius, in Canis Major. It shines at magnitude −1.44, first on ESA's list of the brightest stars, and it's close: its light takes about 8.6 years to reach us.
With Procyon and Betelgeuse it makes the Winter Triangle, which stays in the evening sky through the northern winter. Low in the sky, Sirius often flashes with colour. That's our turbulent air acting on a very bright point of light, not the star changing.
Is Earth closest to the Sun in winter?
In the Northern Hemisphere's winter, yes. Earth passes perihelion, the closest point of its orbit to the Sun, in early January. The orbit is an ellipse, so the distance swings between about 147 and 152 million kilometers, and Earth moves about a kilometer per second faster at perihelion than at its farthest point.
Perihelion is one of 60 words in the astronomy dictionary, each with how to say it.
When are the Quadrantids in 2027?
The Quadrantids peak on 3–4 January, at up to 80 meteors an hour, but the maximum lasts only a few hours. At the 2027 maximum the Moon is a waning crescent, 13% lit. With effectively no Moon, this is as good as this shower gets.
The radiant climbs highest before dawn from northern latitudes; from mid-southern latitudes it stays below the horizon while the sky is dark. The shower is named after Quadrans Muralis, a constellation dropped in 1922.
Why does December's full moon ride so high?
A full moon sits opposite the Sun. When the December Sun is at its lowest, the full moon is at its highest, so December's stays above the horizon longer than any other full moon of the year, sometimes for more than fifteen hours at northern latitudes. It fits its other name, the Long Night Moon.
In 2026 the Cold Moon is full on 24 December at 01:28 UTC.
When is the winter solstice in 2026?
The December solstice falls on Monday 21 December 2026 at 20:50 UTC. A solstice is a single moment, not a whole day, so it can fall on different dates in different time zones.
Cool Moon Facts works the moment out itself, and its tests hold the results within two minutes of the US Naval Observatory's table. It names the solstices by month, because the June one begins summer in the north and winter in the south.
What stars can you see tonight?
Choose a place and a time, and the sky finder works out which bright stars and constellations should be up, which way to face, how high to look and when each is best placed, for any night from 2000 to 2050.
Your location stays private. “Use my approximate location” is rounded to about 10 km, the city list comes with the site and is searched on your own device, and the place you choose is never sent anywhere.
When are the Geminids in 2026, and will the Moon get in the way?
The Geminids peak on 13–14 December, at up to 150 meteors an hour, the best shower of the year. At the 2026 maximum the Moon is a waxing crescent, 21% lit. A crescent that sets in the evening, well before the shower's best hours.
Unusually, the Geminids don't come from a comet. Their debris comes from the asteroid 3200 Phaethon, which passes closer to the Sun than Mercury.
Why is November's full moon called the Beaver Moon?
There are two explanations, and they point in opposite directions: beavers finishing their lodges before the water freezes, or the month to set beaver traps while their coats were thick.
The trapping version is the one more often printed, and it points to the North American fur trade, a colonial industry, so it can't also be an ancient Indigenous name.
In 2026 the Beaver Moon is full on 24 November at 14:53 UTC.
What happened in the 1833 Leonid meteor storm?
Before dawn on 13 November 1833, meteors fell over North America at perhaps 100,000 an hour. Denison Olmsted at Yale noticed they all streamed from one point in Leo, and that the point moved with the stars, which put their origin in space rather than in the air. His accounts are where the study of meteor showers begins.
The page gives the Moon for that night too: a 3% crescent that had already set.
Where can you see the total solar eclipse on 2 August 2027?
The path of totality crosses Morocco, Spain, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia, with up to 6 minutes 23 seconds of totality.
Cool Moon Facts draws that path itself from its own Sun and Moon model, and checks it against NASA's figures on every build. For whether totality reaches your street, the page points you to NASA's map.
These notes also go out on the Cool Moon Facts LinkedIn page (opens in a new tab).