There is no moonless evening time viewing in the first half of January 2020. The moon will be in the evening sky from New Year’s Day until mid month. It’s only after 15th January where will we’ll enjoy moon-free evenings all the way to midnight.
First quarter is on the second day of the month, so you’ll need to recover quickly from New Year celebrations to make the most of that. However, if you carry out your astronomy in the early hours of the morning, then the last 10 days of January are perfect for you. Full moon is on the 10th of the month which means that the second week in January is the worst of all worlds.
If you are planning a deep sky object hunt this month, I would delay it until the second half of this first month of 2020.
Whether you are planning to observe the moon, or you want to make sure to avoid it, use the table below to discover when the moon will be above the horizon in January. The ‘Illumination’ column shows how bright it is going to be – the higher the %, the brighter the moon.
The following chart shows a visualisation of when the moon is above the horizon and below. This should make it easier for you to plan which nights offer the darkest skies and which provide the best opportunity for observing the moon itself.
The two pictures below from SkySafari 6 show the first quarter moon at 11pm on January 02nd and the last quarter moon at 5am on 17th January. Click on the pictures for full screen versions.