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!