The night sky will have a multitude of delights in store for stargazers in 2024. What to look for

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The night sky will have a multitude of delights in store for stargazers in 2024.

Full moons and meteor showers will light up the sky. An increase in solar activity is expected to cause auroras that will create colorful displays. And eclipse chasers have been counting down to 2024 since the “Great American Eclipse” of 2017 — because a total solar eclipse will travel across the United States in April.

Many nights, there will be opportunities to spot different planets or look for the International Space Station as it orbits Earth.

Keep your telescopes and binoculars at the ready, and don’t forget to snag a pair of eclipse glasses so you can safely watch the total solar eclipse.

Full moons and supermoons

Twelve full moons will occur during 2024, and September and October’s lunar events will also be considered supermoons, according to EarthSky.

Definitions of a supermoon can vary, but the term generally denotes a full moon that is closer to Earth than normal and thus appears larger and brighter in the night sky. Some astronomers say the phenomenon occurs when the moon is within 90% of perigee — its closest approach to Earth in orbit.

Each month’s full moon is associated with a specific name, according to the Farmers’ Almanac. But the full moons have a variety of names and meanings according to different indigenous tribes.

Here are the full moons of 2024:

January 25: Wolf moon

February 24: Snow moon

March 25: Worm moon

April 23: Pink moon

May 23: Flower moon

June 21: Strawberry moon

July 21: Buck moon

August 19: Sturgeon moon

September 17: Harvest moon

October 17: Hunter’s moon

November 15: Beaver moon

December 15: Cold moon

Solar and lunar eclipses

Multiple eclipses will occur in 2024, including two types of lunar eclipses and two types of solar eclipses, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac.

The most highly anticipated of these events is the total solar eclipse occurring on April 8, which will be visible to those in Mexico, the United States and Canada. A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between Earth and the sun, completely blocking the sun’s face.

Those within the path of totality, or locations where the moon’s shadow will completely cover the sun, will see a total solar eclipse. People outside the path of totality will still be able to see a partial solar eclipse, in which the moon only obscures part of the sun’s face.

A total solar eclipse won’t be visible across the contiguous US again until August 2044.

An annular solar eclipse will occur in the sky on October 2 over parts of South America. This type of eclipse is similar to a total solar eclipse, except the moon is at the farthest point in its orbit from Earth, so it can’t completely block the sun. Instead, annular solar eclipses create a “ring of fire” in the sky as the sun’s fiery light surrounds the moon’s shadow.

Meanwhile, a penumbral lunar eclipse will be visible to many across Europe, North and East Asia, Australia, Africa, North America and South America between March 24-25.

A lunar eclipse, which causes the moon to look dark or dimmed, occurs when the sun, Earth and moon align so that the moon passes into Earth’s shadow. A penumbral lunar eclipse is more subtle and happens when the moon moves through the outer shadow, or penumbra, of the Earth.

A partial lunar eclipse, when the Earth moves between the sun and the full moon without being perfectly aligned, will appear over Europe and much of Asia, Africa, North America and South America between September 17-18.

Check Time and Date’s website to see when each of these eclipses will appear.

Solar activity and auroras

The sun is expected to reach solar maximum, or the peak of its 11-year cycle of activity, in mid-to-late 2024.

When the sun is active, it releases strong solar flares and coronal mass ejections, or large clouds of ionized gas called plasma and magnetic fields that erupt from the sun’s outer atmosphere. The solar storms generated by the sun can affect electric power grids, GPS and aviation, and satellites in low-Earth orbit. These events also cause radio blackouts and even pose risks for crewed space missions.

The Space Weather Prediction Center, operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colorado, will be closely monitoring the sun and release warnings and predictions about solar activity that could impact Earth.
Scientists are eagerly anticipating what they could learn about the sun’s activity by observing it during April’s total solar eclipse.

A more positive side effect of increased solar activity, however, is the auroras that dance around Earth’s poles, known as the northern lights, or aurora borealis, and southern lights, or aurora australis.

When the energized particles from coronal mass ejections reach Earth’s magnetic field, they interact with gases in the atmosphere to create different colored lights in the sky.

Geomagnetic storms driven by the sun in 2023 caused auroras to be visible in places where they are rarely seen, including as far south as New Mexico, Missouri, North Carolina and California in the United States, and the southeast of England and other parts of the United Kingdom.

Depending on the location, the auroras may not always be visible overhead, but they create a colorful display on the horizon.

Meteor showers

The new year kicks off with a meteor shower almost immediately. The Quadrantid meteor shower is expected to peak between January 3-4, according to EarthSky.
After the Quadrantids, there’s a bit of a lull in meteor shower activity, and the next one won’t occur until April. Fortunately, there are plenty of celestial events to anticipate during the long wait.

Here is the full list of meteor showers occurring in 2024, according to the American Meteor Society.

Quadrantids: January 3-4

Lyrids: April 21-22

Eta Aquariids: May 4-5

Southern delta Aquariids: July 30-31

Alpha Capricornids: July 30-31

Perseids: August 12-13

Draconids: October 7-8

Orionids: October 21-22

Southern Taurids: November 5-6

Northern Taurids: November 11-12

Leonids: November 17-18

Geminids: December 13-14

Ursids: December 21-22

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