GuideAbout

What’s happening outside now.

Right outsideSky

The Pleiades, Taurus and Orion return to the early evening sky

November to January

The Pleiades, Taurus and Orion are winter star patterns, and through late autumn and early winter they climb into the eastern sky earlier and earlier each night. Nothing moves during any one evening's look, but the sky at bedtime in December is not the sky you saw at bedtime in November.

Why this time of year

Near Boston the sun is down by about 4:22pm in mid November and full dark arrives before five, so the sky finally opens inside a young child's awake window. The Pleiades are already low in the east at nightfall in November, Orion joins them through December, and by early January all three are up in the east in the early evening.

How to notice it

  1. Pick one spot with an open view east and one clock time you can keep, something like six or seven in the evening.
  2. On a clear November night look low in the east to northeast for a small misty smudge of stars. That is the Pleiades, and most people count six without binoculars, not seven.
  3. Go back to the same spot at the same clock time a few weeks later. The Pleiades will sit higher, and the orange star Aldebaran and the V of Taurus will have come up underneath.
  4. Keep going into December and January, when Orion and the three belt stars in a short straight row join them.

Try this with kids: The stars did not move tonight, so how did they get higher than last time? What do you think is moving instead?

Earth's trip around the sun makes every star rise about four minutes earlier each night, which is roughly two hours a month

Safety

  • Standing still in the dark gets cold fast in November and December, so dress warmer than a walk would need.

Sources

  • earthsky.orgEarthSky: Orion is in the eastern sky in November between 10pm and midnight, and Orion's stars rise some four minutes earlier each day, about two hours earlier each month. No mention of October as an evening object, which is why this entry starts in November.
  • earthsky.orgEarthSky, and this is the deck's claim in the source's own words: you will find all of these objects up in the east by mid to late evening in November, and they will be up earlier as the months pass. Also that most people see six, not seven, Pleiades stars.
  • earthsky.orgEarthSky: the Pleiades are low in the east at nightfall in November, high overhead around midnight, and low in the west before dawn.
  • science.nasa.govNASA Night Sky Network, the source for the order of arrival and for the January tag: Orion is the last of a trio to rise during late fall and early winter, preceded by the Pleiades and the Hyades, and all three are easily spotted rising in the east in EARLY JANUARY evenings.
  • science.nasa.govNASA: for December, as evening falls you will see Orion rising in the east with Taurus above it.
  • courses.lumenlearning.comOpenStax Astronomy via SUNY: the stars complete their circle in 23 hours 56 minutes, so Earth must turn an extra 1/365 of a rotation to finish a solar day, about 4 minutes, and stars rise 4 minutes earlier each day. This is the mechanism behind the two hours a month.
  • aa.usno.navy.milUS Naval Observatory for 42.36N on 2026-11-15: sunset 16:22, end of civil twilight 16:52 local standard time. Verified including the timezone, since daylight time ends November 1 2026 so tz -5 is correct for that date.

Checked against these sources on September 6, 2026.

In the guide for November, December, January

Also worth noticing