Former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly snapped this photo of the Earth’s crescent, the moon, Venus and Jupiter (from top to bottom) on Aug. 6, 2015, while he was aboard the International Space Station.

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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.

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.