Monthly Night Sky information provided by Chris Vaughan (@Astrogeoguy) at Starry Night Education (@StarryNightEdu).
On Saturday, December 7, Mars’ easterly orbital motion through the stars of Cancer will slow to a stop in order for it to begin a westerly retrograde loop that will last through its mid-January opposition and into late February. Tonight the bright, reddish dot of Mars will be positioned in the eastern evening sky in […]
On Saturday evening, December 7 in the Americas, the waxing crescent moon will shine a palm’s width to the lower right (or celestial west) of Saturn. The pair will be due south after dusk and then set in the west around 11 p.m. local time. On Sunday night, the half-illuminated first quarter moon will hop […]
The moon will complete the first quarter of its 29.53-day trip around Earth on Sunday, December 8 at 10:27 a.m. EST, 7:27 a.m. PST, and 15:27 GMT. At first quarter, the moon’s 90-degree angle from the sun causes us to see it half-illuminated on its eastern side. First quarter moons always rise around mid-day and […]
On Tuesday night, December 10, the terminator on the waxing gibbous moon will cross Sinus Iridum, the Bay of Rainbows. The circular 155 mile (249 km) diameter feature is a large impact crater that was flooded by the same basalts that filled the much larger Mare Imbrium to its east – forming a round bay […]
On Thursday night, December 12, the bright, nearly full moon will shine near the planet Uranus. Use binoculars (orange circle) to look for the medium-bright star Botein (Delta Arietis) shining below the moon. If you place Botein just at the upper edge of the binoculars’ field of view, Uranus will appear as a dull, blue-green […]