January has kept sky-gazers busy with a steady stream of celestial events. We’re less than 10 days into the year, and we’ve already had a supermoon, the peak of the Quadrantids meteor shower and an aurora borealis sighting. It appears the cosmos isn’t done yet, as the evening of Jan. 9 will be the best night to view the largest planet, Jupiter, in all of 2026. That means it’s time to break out the telescopes and warm jackets if you want to catch a glimpse. 

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This is all due to a phenomenon called opposition, which occurs when the Earth’s orbit brings us directly between the sun and the planet in opposition. This is when Earth is closest to the planet, making it more visible. This can only happen with planets further away from the sun than Earth, which means everything from Mars outward. 

Friday night into Saturday morning will see the Earth move between the sun and Jupiter, which will bring Jupiter as close to Earth as it will get in 2026. According to StarWalk, Jupiter will reach opposition at approximately 3:34 a.m. ET, after which the planets will begin to drift apart again.

During its opposition, Jupiter will be the brightest object in the sky other than the moon and the sun, and it’ll remain that way for the next couple of weeks. (Venus is technically brighter than Jupiter during this time, but it will be hidden behind the sun during mid-January.)

Jupiter goes into opposition about once every 13 months, so your next chance to view the gas giant won’t be until early 2027. 

How to view Jupiter during opposition

Jupiter will rise from the eastern horizon right around sunset local time. It’ll streak across the southern sky before setting in the west right at sunrise. That should give sky-gazers plenty of time to find and view Jupiter before it sets. It’ll repeat this process for weeks, so if you do have to miss it tonight due to weather or other reasons, you can check it out tomorrow or next week as well. 

Jupiter will be visible to the naked eye — it’ll look like a star if viewed without any magnification. Thanks to its increased brightness, it’ll be easily viewable in cities and the suburbs as well, although you will get a better view if you head out of town and away from the light pollution. 

Things get a lot more interesting with magnification. A pair of high-powered binoculars will give you a pretty good glimpse of the gas giant, and you might potentially catch a glimpse of Jupiter’s moons if your binoculars are strong enough. Stepping up to a telescope, even a low-powered one, makes viewing the planet and its moons much easier.

There are several free resources if you need help finding Jupiter, including Stellarium’s sky map and Time and Date’s sky viewing tool. The weather should also be relatively decent, with many parts of the US experiencing unseasonably warm temperatures.