<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Having recently flip-flopped our clocks with the end of Daylight Saving Time, we will not have to hear the endless debates about \u2018should we keep DST\u2019 or \u2018should we drop DST\u2019 until the next \u2018spring ahead\u2019 on March 10, 2024.\u00a0 Having previously shared my biased opinion that I would just as soon stay on DST year round, I couldn\u2019t help but notice a recent statistic about the subject in <\/span>The MIlwaukee Journal-Sentinel<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 According to the <\/span>MJ-S<\/span><\/i>, November ranks as the month with the highest number of car\/deer crashes.\u00a0 The reason?\u00a0 The end of DST pushes their evening period of activity smack dab in the middle of \u2018rush hour\u2019 (or in the case of the northwoods, \u2018commuting home from work\u2019 in lieu of an actual \u2018rush hour\u2019).\u00a0 In other words, the deer\/human commute schedules collide (pun intended).\u00a0 No matter how much I dislike how early nightfall comes and how long the darkness lasts, those of us in Ontonagon county have one advantage over our neighbors to the south.\u00a0 With the extension of the EST zone into the western Upper Peninsula reaching nearly half way across the CST zone, our twilight happens an hour later, by the local clock, than it does a mere 30 miles to our south in the WI\/MI border counties.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As long as we started this AstroCal with time, we might as well mention the <\/span>Winter Solstice <\/b>which will occur at 10:27 p.m. EST on December 21.\u00a0 This marks the point where the vertical rays of the <\/span>Sun <\/b>reach 23.5 degrees south latitude, the line designated the<\/span> Tropic of Cancer.<\/b>\u00a0 Should you be located somewhere on the globe at that latitude, you would see the Sun directly overhead.\u00a0 For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, the Sun will appear at its lowest point in our sky at astronomical noon.\u00a0 The end result is seven hours of daylight and 17 hours of darkness for our latitude (47 degrees north for Ontonagon).\u00a0 The three weeks on either side of the solstice give us by far our shortest daylight and longest night period.\u00a0 By the middle of January, we will already be noticing a slight lengthening of the daylight hours.\u00a0 Should you be one of the unfortunate people affected by Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), we might suggest a small investment in a certified \u2018sun lamp\u2019 to help chase away those winter blues.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Leaving the time and season change soap box behind, let us look at the <\/span>Lunar Cycle <\/b>for December.\u00a0 The first week of the month will see the previous cycle winding down.\u00a0 The <\/span>Last Quarter Moon<\/b> happens on Dec 5 and\u00a0 the last <\/span>Old Crescent Moon<\/b> will appear near the eastern horizon in <\/span>Scorpius, the Scorpion <\/b>40 minutes before sunrise on Dec 11.\u00a0 The <\/span>New Moon <\/b>is slated for Dec 12 followed by the <\/span>First Quarter Moon<\/b> of the new cycle on Dec 19 and the <\/span>Full Moon <\/b>is set for Dec 26.\u00a0 If you are an avid seeker of the first glimpse of the <\/span>New Crescent Moon, <\/b>look for it hugging the western horizon on December 14 about 40 minutes after sunset.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Our historical Astro-event comes from a mere 38 years ago when one of the most famous comet\u2019s known to humankind made a rather disappointing return to the inner Solar System.\u00a0 Since <\/span>Halley\u2019s Comet <\/b>made its last close approach to the <\/span>Earth <\/b>in 1986, most of us haven\u2019t given it much thought as it is only halfway through its current 76 year orbit.\u00a0 Nonetheless, the Abrams Planetarium reports, \u201cHalley\u2019s comet reaches aphelion early in December 2023.\u00a0 Aphelion marks the point in its orbit when it\u2019s farthest from the Sun.\u00a0 Halley\u2019s Comet will reach perihelion, its closest point to the Sun, in late July of 2061, just 38 years from now.\u00a0 Halley\u2019s Comet\u2019s 2061 appearance will be spectacular!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As the much anticipated 1986 pass neared, a host of companies began marketing small telescopes that they were sure the general public would snatch up to join the cosmic fun.\u00a0 Apparently the hype about Halley wasn\u2019t enough to compel people to fork over a hefty price for a once in a lifetime event.\u00a0 Less than a year later, I picked up one of the small table top units for less than a third of what they were asking prior to Halley\u2019s return.\u00a0 I won\u2019t mark the next pass down in my date book yet but it would give the (by then) 108 year-old me to look forward to!<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If you are up for the challenge of locating planets <\/span>Neptune, Uranus<\/b>, and asteroid <\/span>4 Vesta, <\/b>let us direct you to the excellent planet finder charts that appear at abramsplaetarium.org\/msta\/ .<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As for the morning planets, <\/span>Venus<\/b> can be found in the SE shining brightly at mag -4.2.\u00a0 The planet will appear in conjunction (close to) the waning Crescent Moon two hours before sunrise on Dec 9.\u00a0 By the end of the year, Venus will be in its gibbous phase having filled out from 68 to 78 percent of a full disk.\u00a0 It will still dominate the morning sky even as the size of the disk shrinks from 17 to 14 percent during the month.\u00a0 <\/span>Mercury<\/b> will brighten to mat +1.0 by Dec 30 and can be located to the left of Venus.\u00a0 Observations of Mercury will improve greatly in January.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The evening sky will remain <\/span>Jupiter\u2019s<\/b> domain even as it\u2019s magnitude reduces slightly from -2.8 to -2.6 as the month passes.\u00a0 As Jupiter ends its retrograde motion against the background of stars, the size of its disk will also be shrinking fron 48\u201d (arcseconds) to 44\u201d across.\u00a0 <\/span>Saturn <\/b>will pass through the dusk skies, moving across the stars of <\/span>Aquarius, the Water Bearer<\/b> from S to SSW during December.\u00a0 The Ringed Planet\u2019s magnitude will be a steady +0.9.\u00a0 Through a telescope, the rings will present themselves at about a 37 degree angle with about 10 degrees visible from edge on.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Geminid meteor shower peaks on December 13-14 with up to 10 meteors per hour visible under ideal conditions.\u00a0 Geminid meteors are brief streaks of light emitted by plasma created as dust impacts the Earth’s upper atmosphere at a speed of 34 kilometers per second.\u00a0 The dust originates from the asteroid 3200 Phaethon.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is always my intent to take some of the mystery out of these astronomical events so even those with a casual interest in the heavens will not need a reference manual at hand to understand the upcoming events.\u00a0 With that said, there are times when the astronomer geek in me likes to pass along items that can\u2019t really be distilled into a few short sidebar explanations.\u00a0 There are actually two bits of information in the December Sky Calendar that I would like to pass along and in this case, I am going to let the good folks at Abrams Planetarium do the explaining:\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0AstroGeek item one:\u00a0 \u201cMercury passes ascending node of its orbit, moving north through the ecliptic on Dec 16 and passing perihelion on Dec 20, so transition through inferior conjunction Dec 22 is fast, enabling views in both evening and mornings this month!\u201d [note – look for Mercury in the W 40 min after sunset early in the month and in the E 40 before sunrise at the end of the month].<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0AstroGeek item two:\u00a0 \u201cOf the five first-mag stars within the zodiac, only <\/span>Pollux<\/b> [in <\/span>Gemini – the Twins<\/b>] can\u2019t be occulted by the Moon, since it is 6.7 degrees north of the ecliptic.\u00a0 This month, the ascending node of the Moon\u2019s orbit is 90 degrees west of Pollux, making the Moon come close to Pollux at each pass in 2023-24.\u00a0 Nodes of the Moon\u2019s orbit regress all the way around the zodiac in 18.6 years, so 8-10 years from now, observers will be able to watch the Moon pass very widely south of Pollux.\u201d\u00a0 Another thing to pencil into your long term appointment calendar!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Compiled by Ken Raisanen of WOAS-FM – information provided by <\/span>Abrams Planetarium Sky Calendar<\/span><\/i>, Michigan State University.\u00a0 More information and subscription information can be found on their website at <\/span>http:\/\/abramsplanetarium.org\/<\/span><\/a>skycalendar\/ or on X (formerly Twitter) at <\/span>http:\/\/twitter.com\/AbramsSkyNotes<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 Yearly subscriptions cost $12 and can be started anytime.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Top Piece Video – As long as we started talking about time – here is a clip of a 1986 Fillmore reunion concert featuring The Chambers Brothers and their mega hit Time Has Come Today –<\/em> hey, you have to love the cowbell!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Having recently flip-flopped our clocks with the end of Daylight Saving Time, we will not have to hear the endless debates about \u2018should we keep DST\u2019 or \u2018should we drop DST\u2019 until the next \u2018spring ahead\u2019 on March 10, 2024.\u00a0 Having previously shared my biased opinion that I would just as soon stay on 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