Planets Visible in December 2026: Night Sky Calendar With the Geminids and the Solstice

The Moon passes about 1.4° from Jupiter on Sunday, Dec. 27, 2026, the Geminid meteor shower peaks the night of Dec. 13-14 and the December solstice arrives on Monday, Dec. 21 at 3:50 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST), according to the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO) and our night sky calendar computed from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Horizons data. NASA’s “What’s Up” guide for December 2026 was not online as of Oct. 31, so we calculated the planet events ourselves and took the Moon phases and the solstice from the USNO.

All times are Eastern Standard Time. Print the same dates on one page with the December 2026 night sky calendar printable.

What is happening in the night sky each day of December 2026?

Date (Eastern)	Event	When and where to look	How close
Tue., Dec. 1	Last quarter Moon	1:08 a.m. EST (06:08 Universal Time, UT)	Moon phase
Fri., Dec. 4 to Thu., Dec. 17	Geminids active	Peak night is Dec. 13-14	Meteor shower
Tue., Dec. 8	New Moon	7:52 p.m. EST (00:52 UT on Dec. 9)	Moon phase
Sun., Dec. 13 to Mon., Dec. 14	Geminids peak	After about 9 p.m. local time	About 120 to 150 per hour
Thu., Dec. 17	First quarter Moon	12:42 a.m. EST (05:42 UT)	Moon phase
Thu., Dec. 17	Moon and Neptune	About noon; binoculars or a telescope only (magnitude 7.9)	About 4.6°
Mon., Dec. 21	December solstice	3:50 p.m. EST (20:50 UT)	Shortest day in the Northern Hemisphere
Wed., Dec. 23	Full Moon (Cold Moon)	8:28 p.m. EST (01:28 UT on Dec. 24)	Moon phase
Sun., Dec. 27	Moon and Jupiter	About 11:30 a.m.; look before sunrise, when the gap is about 4.1° at 5 a.m.	About 1.4°
Mon., Dec. 28	Moon and Mars	About 8:30 a.m.; look before sunrise, when the gap is about 5.1° at 5 a.m.	About 4.7°
Wed., Dec. 30	Last quarter Moon	1:59 p.m. EST (18:59 UT)	Moon phase

Separations are center to center as seen from Earth’s center. From any one city the Moon’s apparent position can differ by up to about 1°, so every figure is approximate. The planet times come from our calculation with the open-source Astronomy Engine, which we checked against JPL Horizons: for Jupiter on Dec. 27 at 10:00 a.m. EST the two agree on its distance from the Sun in the sky to 0.001° (129.178°), and the Moon’s position matches within 0.005°. The Moon phases and the solstice come from the USNO.

Two Moon pairings fall just outside our 5° cutoff. The waning Moon is about 6.6° from Venus around midnight EST on Dec. 5, and the waxing Moon is about 6.2° from Saturn at about 11:40 p.m. EST on Dec. 17.

Which planets are visible in December 2026?

Venus, Jupiter and Mars are morning planets and Saturn is an evening planet in December, according to our calculation. The rise times are for New York, on Dec. 15.

Planet	Distance from the Sun in the sky	Brightness (magnitude)	New York, Dec. 15
Venus	41° on Dec. 1, 45° on Dec. 15, 47° on Dec. 31	About -4.9 to -4.6	Rises about 3:24 a.m.
Mars	97° on Dec. 1, 107° on Dec. 15, 120° on Dec. 31	About +0.5 to -0.1	Rises about 10:11 p.m.
Jupiter	103° on Dec. 1, 117° on Dec. 15, 134° on Dec. 31	About -2.2 to -2.4	Rises about 9:24 p.m.
Saturn	118° on Dec. 1, 104° on Dec. 15, 88° on Dec. 31	About +0.6 to +0.7	Sets about 1 a.m.

Lower magnitudes are brighter. Venus is the brightest of the four and rises before the Sun; sunrise in New York is at 7:12 a.m. on Dec. 15. Its angle from the Sun keeps growing; Venus reaches its greatest western elongation, 47.0°, at about 12:56 p.m. EST on Jan. 3, 2027, just after this month ends.

Jupiter and Mars rise before midnight and stay up until dawn, so they are the planets to find on a late night or an early morning. Saturn is the evening planet, setting around 1 a.m. in New York in mid-December.

Can I see Mercury, Uranus and Neptune?

Mercury is a poor target. It is in the morning sky but only 16.5° from the Sun on Dec. 1 and 9.4° on Dec. 15, and it rises 85 minutes before the Sun in New York on Dec. 1 and 42 minutes before it on Dec. 15. By Dec. 31 it is 1.8° from the Sun.

Uranus (magnitude 5.6) and Neptune (magnitude 7.9) are evening planets. Uranus is at the edge of naked-eye visibility from very dark sites, and Neptune needs binoculars or a telescope; the Moon passes about 4.6° from Neptune on Dec. 17.

How good are the Geminids in 2026?

The Geminid meteor shower is active from Dec. 4 to Dec. 17 and peaks the night of Sunday, Dec. 13 into Monday, Dec. 14, 2026, according to the American Meteor Society (AMS). Under a dark, clear sky the AMS puts the rate at roughly 120 to 150 meteors an hour at the peak. The Moon is a thin waxing crescent that night, five days after the Dec. 8 new moon in the U.S. Naval Observatory table.

The Geminid radiant rises in the early evening, so you can start watching by about 9 p.m. local time. Our Cold Moon, Geminids and solstice guide has the viewing tips and the full list of December sky events.

What time is the December 2026 solstice?

The December solstice falls on Monday, Dec. 21, 2026, at 3:50 p.m. EST (20:50 UT), the USNO says. For sunset times and the length of the day, see our winter solstice guide. The Cold Moon is full two days later, at 8:28 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Dec. 23, by the same USNO table.

Where do these times come from?

NASA’s skywatching series, “What’s Up,” had not posted a December 2026 edition as of Oct. 31, 2026. We did not copy another site. We computed positions with Astronomy Engine, checked them against the NASA JPL Horizons ephemeris, and converted from UT to Eastern time. Moon phases and the solstice are from the USNO moon phases table and the USNO seasons table, and the Geminid dates and rates are from the AMS meteor shower calendar. Planet events are rounded to the half hour, so an event can fall within an hour of the time shown. For last month’s events, see the November 2026 night sky calendar, and mark December’s dates on a December 2026 printable calendar or a 2027 yearly calendar.