Items Featured In TGP NOMINAL Xtra - December Skies 2019
Ross Hockham's December Sky Guide:
Saturn is literally not far from Venus, just bottom right of it. But it's going to be setting a lot earlier now. I'm afraid we've pretty much lost Jupiter as it's now gone below the Horizon for a while so we're not really going to get a very good look at it But Saturn is now heading that way as well so it's probably the last month will get to see Saturn's Rings until next year sometime. |
Uranus is up, pardon the pun. It's hanging just below Aries (The Ram), so you can always spot that.
It's probably the highest planet at the moment, that I've seen, so fingers crossed.
You will need a telescope to see it.
Neptune is just slightly lower, down in Aquarius (The Water Carrier). It'll be hard to spot because it is setting around 10 p.m. so again it will be kind of lower, but you still have the chance to see it, if you wait until the moon's out the way. It'll be posted on the Facebook group, so you can find it there. |
Mars is now rising in the morning sky, so we now have a nice red blob or blood as our ancestors used to think it was. I can't say that you'll see much detail looking through a telescope really. But you should see it, If you get a really nice clear sky but it will be still quite low. Be careful looking around when the sun is setting as the Sun will damage your eyes. |
There is one event that we have to mention and that's the Geminid Meteor shower, as it's usually a pretty good show.
You get to see quite a few meteors, although this year's one there is a bright Moon in the way,
but you'll still see some hopefully.
To see where they radiate from or where so they shoot out from, you need to find the constellation Orion.
It's really big and easy to find (he's got a belt which is a great easy spot).
It's made up of three big blue stars, it's in a diagonal line.
If you have an app join the lines between the stars, it looks like to stick men holding hands which are the twin brothers Castor and Pollux of the constellation Gemini and the two bright Stars which represent their heads,
is where the shower pretty much comes from.
Unfortunately, the moon is going to be around that area, when it peaks (the 13th and 14th).
So It will probably be best to be standing with the Moon behind you and looking kind of up and away from it,
and you might just see some actually streak across the sky.
Most Meteor Showers are caused by comets,
but the Geminid Meteor Shower was caused by an asteroid called 3200 Phaethon.
3200 Phaethon left a dust trail as it orbits the Sun.
The Earth then passes through the dust trial at this time each year and we get a nice meteor shower.
That's happy hunting.
So hopefully I'll see you in the new year
for more astronomical adventures out there, looking up at the sky next year.