On New Year’s Eve, Venus will blaze in the evening sky next to the Moon at a distance of only 3 degrees away. The Moon will be only a few days old (with New Moon on the 27th of December) and so the bright planet will be spectacular as it follows the setting crescent Moon in the sky.

At 4:30pm on Dec. 31 Astronomy Ireland will set up telescopes from our Shop for you to try out and to observe the amazing craters and canyons on the Moon, as well as the extremely bright Venus. Venus has phases similar to the Moon, and around New Year's Eve it will be roughly half lit up. This can be easily seen through one of our telescopes on that evening.

Here is the location of Venus and the Moon at sunset on New Year's Eve.

If you have clear skies and an unobscured horizon you may also get to see the planets Jupiter and Mercury right next to each other, 30 degrees to the lower right of the Moon, but view well before they set at 5:30pm.

Be sure to visit us at sunset on New Year's Eve at our Shop. A map to Astronomy Ireland can be viewed here.