Monthly Night Sky information provided by Chris Vaughan (@Astrogeoguy) at Starry Night Education (@StarryNightEdu).
The moon will complete three quarters of its orbit around Earth, measured from the previous new moon, on Sunday, December 22 at 5:18 p.m. EST, 2:18 p.m. PST, or 22:18 GMT. At its third (or last) quarter phase the moon is half-illuminated, on its western, sunward side. It will rise around midnight local time, and […]
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 […]