{"id":713,"date":"2021-11-30T04:32:28","date_gmt":"2021-11-30T04:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/?p=713"},"modified":"2021-11-30T05:01:01","modified_gmt":"2021-11-30T05:01:01","slug":"december-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/december-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"December 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

All\nthe naked eye planet watching this month is not long after sunset and\nnot long before sunrise. The evening planet watching last longer,\nbecause some of the planets are higher than others at sunset and set\nlater. And depending on how visible it is, you may catch Comet\nLeonard at either time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(The moving gifs for the evening sky watching aren’t showing up properly here. The workaround is putting every frame farther below. Scroll down to see them.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venus\nstarts the month looking ready to leave Sagittarius for Capricornus\nwhere Saturn remains. Jupiter is farther up the evening sky from\nthem, leaving Capricornus for Aquarius. By the 10th<\/sup>,\nit’s clear that Venus is turning around. It’s nearly stationary for\nthe rest of the month as that region of the sky slips sunward into\nthe twilight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturn’s\nslow movement eastward in Capricornus is steady. You may not see it\nfrom night to night. But you shouldn’t have trouble knowing that it\nhas moved from week to week. Of course, Jupiter moves faster. You’ll\nhave little trouble seeing its movement night to night, even as it’s\nbetween the standout stars of the constellations it’s moving among.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mercury\njoins the party late in the month, passing Venus on the 29th<\/sup>\nand 30th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nthin crescent moon will be close to Venus on the 6th<\/sup>,\nSaturn on the 7th<\/sup>,\nand Jupiter on the 8th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nthat, Comet Leonard joins the evening meeting. It starts somewhat far\nright of the planets around the 10th<\/sup>\nsetting so soon after the sun that it will be hard to spot. A clear\nhorizon is a must. It moves southward (left) quickly, passing Venus\non the 17th<\/sup>\nand 18th<\/sup>.\nIt stays a bit below Capricornus and goes into the dim stars of\nMicroscopium around the 22nd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just\nhow easy it will be to see is not possible to say as I write this in\nadvance. A comet’s brightness depends on things not understood well\nenough to be reliably predictable. Leonard is getting closer to the\nearth until the 12th<\/sup>\nand then closer to the sun until January 3rd<\/sup>.\nThe circumstances, along with the fact that the comet has never been\nthis way before, should make it brighten up a lot. Will it be a naked\neye object? No one should bet on it, but Leonard is among the most\nlikely prospects for such a display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Moving<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If\nyou’re a morning sky watcher, you may see Leonard then early in\nDecember. It’ll be in the east dropping each day toward the sun. It\nwill pass by Arcturus on the 6th<\/sup>.\nIt’ll be a ways north (left) of Mars on the 11th<\/sup>\nand 12th<\/sup>.\nIts position makes it possible to spot Leonard at each end of the\nnight for just a few days around that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If\nyou have trouble finding very low Mars in the morning, look for it\nnear the waning crescent moon on the 3rd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Antarctica\ngets a total solar eclipse on December 4th<\/sup>.\nPartial phases will be visible from areas around the continent, in\nfar southern Africa, and far southeastern Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nGeminid meteor shower peaks around the 13th<\/sup>\nand 14th<\/sup>.\nThe best viewing is likely to be several nights before. With the moon\nwaxing toward full on the 15th<\/sup>,\nthis colorful shower may not be able to put on a great show at its\nheight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nsouthern solstice is on the 21st<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moon\nphases this month: new on the 4th<\/sup>,\nfirst quarter on the 11th<\/sup>,\nfull on the 19th<\/sup>,\nand last quarter on the 27th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmoon’s at southern lunistice at 26.3\u00b0 on the 6th<\/sup>.\nIt goes north of the equator on the 12th<\/sup>.\nNorthern lunistice is on the 20th<\/sup>\nat 26.3\u00b0. The moon goes south again on the 27th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perigee\nis on the 4th<\/sup>\nat 356,800km. Apogee is on the 18th<\/sup>\nat 406,300km.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mercury is at aphelion on the 2nd<\/sup> at 0.467 astronomical units from the sun. Vesta is at perihelion on the 26th<\/sup> at 2.153au.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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All the naked eye planet watching this month is not long after sunset and not long before sunrise. The evening planet watching last longer, because some of the planets are higher than others at sunset and set later. And depending on how visible it is, you may catch Comet Leonard at either time. (The moving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-60"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":759,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713\/revisions\/759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}