Monthly Night Sky information provided by Chris Vaughan (@Astrogeoguy) at Starry Night Education (@StarryNightEdu).
From time to time, observers with good quality telescopes can watch the small, round, black shadows of the Galilean moons traverse Jupiter’s disk. On Monday morning, December 23, sky-watchers located in the Americas can watch two of the shadows and the Great Red Spot crossing the southern hemisphere of Jupiter together for about an hour. […]
Early risers on Tuesday morning, December 24 will see the pretty sight of the waning crescent moon shining in the southern sky close to Libra’s brightest star, Spica. The star will be twinkling a few finger widths to the moon’s lower left (or celestial southeast) from about 3 a.m. local time to the onset of […]
On the mornings surrounding Wednesday, December 25, Mercury will reach its widest angle of 22° west of the sun, and peak visibility, for its current morning apparition. Starting around 5:45 a.m. in your local time zone, look for the planet shining very low in the east-southeastern sky, and climbing. The bright star Antares will sparkle […]
Sirius, the brightest star in Canis Major and in the entire night sky, too, is hard to miss once it clears the trees and rooftops in the southeast by 7:30 p.m. local time. Also known as the Dog Star, it will climb to its highest point in the lower part of the southern sky shortly […]
If the weather forecast calls for clear skies to the southeast on Saturday morning, December 28, it will be worth venturing outside around breakfast time to see the pretty spectacle of the old, waning moon’s slender crescent shining close to Scorpius’ bright star Antares and brighter Mercury. All three objects will clear the treetops by […]