The Sky at Night
Pegasus has slipped off westwards and the inverted Y shape of Perseus is highest in the south, followed by Auriga with its brightest star Capella. At a lower elevation below Capella is unmistakably bright Jupiter, shining in Taurus and above Orion. Just to the west of Jupiter and below Perseus you will find the cluster of stars called the Pleiades, or more popularly, the Seven Sisters. See how many stars you can count without optical aid, then turn your binoculars on the star cluster to see its full glory when more members of the group are revealed.
Not far below the Pleiades and close to Jupiter is another bright star, Aldebaran, the brightest star of Taurus, the Bull. Aldebaran is a red giant star 65 light years away and its orange colour will be more obvious when compared to the yellow colour of nearby Jupiter. Aldebaran has been called the eye of the bull as it sits in a V shaped star cluster called the Hyades, but it is much closer than the other stars which form the Hyades as they are at a distance of 153 light years. The Hyades star cluster covers 5º of sky and can be easily seen without optical aid, but is ideally viewed with binoculars. Below Taurus, and now prominent in the evening sky, is Orion, the Hunter, easily recognisable by the three stars of his belt with orange Betelgeuse above and white Rigel below. We will return to Orion and bright stars Betelgeuse and Rigel in Sky Notes in the New Year.
Probably the best meteor shower of the year has its maximum on the night of 13th – 14th December. The Geminid meteor shower can produce in excess of 100 meteors per hour around maximum and many of these meteors are bright. As the name implies, the meteors seem to radiate from the constellation Gemini which is high towards the south-east by mid-evening. It is best to look for meteors away from Gemini as they will be short in length in that direction. Look rather in the direction of Pegasus, or perhaps towards the Plough. Unfortunately, as I previously mentioned, the winter meteor showers this year coincide with a bright and high elevation phase of the Moon which will reduce the number seen, but because the Geminids are often bright it will be worth having a look during the hours of maximum
The Planets
Mercury
It might just be possible to spot Mercury towards the south-east before sunrise from about the 15th until the end of December. However, it may be hidden by the dawn sky and it will be at a very low elevation.
Venus
Venus can be seen in the south-south-west after sunset throughout the month, setting at around 7pm. It will rise slowly during the month but, at best, will not exceed an elevation of 10º, although it will be bright and obvious
Mars
Mars rises at 6.30pm and will be due south at 3am when it will be high in the sky in the constellation of Cancer. As seen from Earth it will be 14 arc seconds in diameter and will show clear surface markings with a moderate sized telescope – unless a large Martian dust storm happens to obscure such detail.
Jupiter
Jupiter will be in Taurus and will be at a similar elevation to Mars at 11.30pm. As Jupiter is much larger than Mars it will present a much bigger disc for telescopic examination. Even a small telescope will show the major cloud bands on its surface, also the Great Red Spot when it crosses the planet during its rapid 10 hour rotation.
Saturn
Saturn is in the constellation Aquarius and will be best seen at about 6pm when it is at its highest elevation due south.
The Moon
The Moon is new on the 1st, at first quarter on the 8th, full on the 15th, at last quarter on the 22nd and again new on the 30th December.