Rare celestial events light up 2025 with eclipses, planetary alignments and a blue Moon

Skywatchers will have plenty to look forward to in the coming months. Rare planetary alignments, meteor showers, and striking lunar events will light up the night sky. Some of these events will be visible to the naked eye, while others may require binoculars or a telescope.

The year kicks off with a lunar eclipse on the evening of Tuesday, March 3. During totality, the full Moon will take on a reddish or coppery hue. For observers in south-east Australia, the peak of the eclipse will occur between 10:04pm and 11:03pm local time.

On February 28, six planets—Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—will form an arc across the evening sky. From the Southern Hemisphere, four of these (Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn) will be visible without a telescope, though their alignment will appear upside down compared to the Northern Hemisphere.

A second full Moon, known as a 'blue Moon,' will rise on Sunday, May 31. This rare event marks the second full Moon in a single calendar month. Then, from April 19 to 22, just before dawn, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn will cluster closely together in the sky.

In mid-December, the Geminid meteor shower will reach its peak in the early morning of Tuesday, December 15. Meanwhile, on Christmas Eve, December 24, a 'supermoon' will make the full Moon appear larger than usual.

Earlier in the year, on June 9 and 10, Venus and Jupiter will pass within three Moon-widths of each other. Another planetary gathering will take place on November 14, when Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter align in the north-eastern sky of the Southern Hemisphere.

On November 3, the crescent Moon will move in front of Jupiter, an event visible with binoculars during daylight hours. For meteor enthusiasts, the Southern Delta Aquariids and Alpha Capricornids will peak on July 30 and 31, offering up to 25 meteors per hour for those on the Southern Hemisphere.

Astronomers have also discovered that the Pleiades cluster in Taurus contains far more stars than previously believed—20 times as many. The constellation Taurus itself can be found by tracing a line down from Orion's belt to the bright red star Aldebaran.