The longest nights of the year, cooler weather, clearer skies, and a dearth of mosquitoes — what more can a South Florida stargazer ask for?
This month’s constellation challenge for beginners: Taurus. Taurus is one of the most ancient constellations and one of the most easily recognizable. A V-shaped star cluster called the Hyades forms the face of the bull and a ruddy-hued star called Aldebaran represents his reddish eye. Two long, straight horns complete the picture.
There is a plethora of celestial highlights this month:
- 4 — New Moon. It’s the best time of the month to look for Deep Sky Objects. There will also be a Total Solar Eclipse … if you happen to be visiting Antarctica, the only place on Earth where it will be visible!
- 6. A thin crescent Moon and Venus should make a gorgeous pair low in the western sky after sunset. This is the first of a triplet of “conjunctions” just a few days apart.
- 7. The crescent Moon will be seen near Saturn in the early evening sky (though not as close as it was to Venus the previous evening).
- 8/9. The final conjunction of the set will feature a wider crescent Moon appearing near Jupiter for a couple of nights in a row.
- 13/14 — Geminid Meteor Shower. This is always one of the most consistent and beautiful meteor showers on the calendar (my personal favorite). The best time to catch it this year will be in the predawn skies. A bright Gibbous Moon won’t set until 3 a.m., hampering observations earlier in the evening. But the brightest meteors may be visible all night long. As always, dark skies are far preferable.
- 18. The James Webb Space Telescope will be launched from French Guiana onboard an Ariane 5 rocket. This mammoth infrared space telescope has been dubbed the “successor to the Hubble” for its importance to astronomy. The launch may not be visible from Florida, but astronomy enthusiasts everywhere will be watching the 7:10 a.m. EST liftoff with great anticipation!
- 19 — Full Moon. Some early Native American tribes referred to this as the “Cold Moon.”
- 21 — Winter Solstice. This is the shortest day of the year and the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere (and the first day of summer in the Southern Hemisphere).
- 21. This is the date of the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule to resupply the International Space Station.
- 21/22 — Ursid Meteor Shower. This isn’t one of the better meteor showers of the year, but it still might be worth a look under dark skies. The meteors will seem to originate from Ursa Minor (which includes the Little Dipper) but can be seen anywhere in the sky.
Enjoy the long nights of December, stargazers!