A heliocentric – or sun-centered – view of eclipses in 2019 from astronomer Guy Ottewell.

Seaside, Oregon, at sunset.

The 2 brightest planets are easy to spot in the east before dawn now. Plus they’re getting closer! The Venus-Jupiter conjunction will come on the morning of January 22.

Although people sometimes call them “upside-down rainbows,” they’re made not by rain, but by by ice crystals in the upper atmosphere.

Chilika Lake – on the east coast of India – is the second-largest coastal lagoon in the world. It’s a large wintering ground for migratory birds.

Abhijit Patil created this long-exposure image at Rocky Gorge in New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest on January 5, 2019. “It’s a tricky spot to shoot during the night,” he wrote, “but the night views are spectacular and worth the risk.”

Because Earth’s orbit isn’t precisely circular, the size of the sun in our sky changes slightly throughout the year. This image shows that small variation in sun size.

Two-day-old moon – January 8, 2019 – from the frozen hills of Bacau, Romania.

The Quadrantid meteor shower – which peaked on the night of January 3-4, 2019 – has a very narrow peak. Still, the EarthSky community caught some photos.

The January 5-6, 2019, partial solar eclipse was visible from China, Korea, Japan, Russia, the North Pacific Ocean and the Aleutian Islands. Photo here from the EarthSky community.

When you view this giant feature on the sun, realize that it’s several times the size of Earth!

Moon and Mercury over San Anselmo, California on January 4, 2019.

These are called lenticular clouds. They usually – but not always – form where stable moist air flows over a mountain or range of mountains. They can form rapidly and then disappear again just as fast.

Mohamed Laaïfat Photographies sent us this image and his best wishes from Normandy, France. Thank you Mohamed, and happy New Year to all!

Giuseppe Pappa in Sicily, Italy, wrote on December 27, 2018: “The dust and the gas from Mount Etna gave us today this fantastic view during sunset time. The sun became very red due to volcanic ash in the sky.”

A beautiful drama is taking place low in the east before sunup this week. Giant planet Jupiter and innermost planet Mercury have swept close, with dazzling Venus above. Photos here from the EarthSky community.

Yuri Beletsky captured this lenticular cloud on a mid-December night in the Chilean Andes Mountains.