{"id":3346,"date":"2024-11-30T22:45:30","date_gmt":"2024-11-30T22:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=3346"},"modified":"2024-11-30T22:47:59","modified_gmt":"2024-11-30T22:47:59","slug":"astrocal-december-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=3346","title":{"rendered":"AstroCal – December 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

AstroCal – December 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Although the shortest daylight of this year falls on the <\/span>Winter Solstice – December 21<\/b>, it will only take a few weeks before the daylight hours begin to slowly lengthen again.\u00a0 I won\u2019t go into my usual complaint about \u2018how nice it would be to stay on Daylight Saving Time so the afternoon twilight hours would last at least a little longer.\u2019\u00a0 That is just how it is – six weeks of long, dark nights might be more than we would prefer, but the payoff comes six months later when we get the maximum amount of daylight hours in June.\u00a0 On the other hand, the extended dark skies are a boon to those who want to get out and observe the surrounding Universe.\u00a0 If you are still hanging on to summer, upi cam still get your last view of the <\/span>Summer Triangle.\u00a0 <\/b>This grouping is created by the stars <\/span>Deneb (<\/b>in <\/span>Cygnus, the Swan)<\/b>, <\/span>Vega, <\/b>and<\/span> Altair <\/b>can still be seen in the west in the early evening before they slip below the horizon for the winter month<\/span>s.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The second of two <\/span>Full Moons<\/b> in a month is dubbed a <\/span>Blue Moon<\/b>.\u00a0 I do not think there is any such designation for the second <\/span>New Moon<\/b> in a month like we will have in December (Dec 1 and Dec 30).\u00a0 A few days after Dec 1, the <\/span>First Young Crescent Moon<\/b> of the new cycle should be visible in the SW doing a dance around the brightest object in the sky, <\/span>Venus<\/b>.\u00a0 The <\/span>First Quarter<\/b> (Dec 8), <\/span>Full <\/b>(Dec 15), and <\/span>Third Quarter <\/b>(Dec 22) <\/span>Moons <\/b>will fall between the bookend New Moons.\u00a0 The Moon will be at Perigee (the closest point to Earth) on Dec 12 (227,025 miles away) and Apogee (the farthest point from Earth) on Dec 24 (251,335 miles away).\u00a0 December 15 will find the Moon rising at its farthest northern point for the year between the ENE and NE.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the early evening, the previously mentioned bright object Venus (mag -4.2) can be found low in the SW sky at the end of evening twilight.\u00a0 <\/span>Saturn <\/b>(mag +1.0) reaches its highest point in the southern sky at the same time of the evening with <\/span>Jupiter <\/b>(mag -2.8) holding court low in the ENE.\u00a0 Over the next three hours, Venus will set and <\/span>Mars <\/b>(mag -0.5) will rise just after the constellations <\/span>Orion, the Hunter <\/b>and <\/span>Gemini, the Twins.\u00a0 <\/b>Mars and the Full Moon will have a very close encounter in the Western sky an hour before sunrise on Dec 18.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The four brightest \u2018stars\u2019<\/span> in the sky (Venus, Jupiter, <\/span>Sirius<\/b> (mag -1.5) and Mars will all be visible in the sky at the same time, but not until mid-December.\u00a0 On Dec 11, Mars will rise in the East just before Venus sets in the West.\u00a0 Your Astronomical Challenge for this month is to see if you can find the earliest date Venus, Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter will all be visible in the sky at the same time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mars is experiencing early spring so the Red Planet\u2019s CO2\/water ice cap will appear large and bright as the North Polar Hood (cloud cover) clears.\u00a0 As a <\/span>Superior planet <\/b>(one orbiting farther from the Sun than the Earth), Mars will begin retrograde motion on Dec 6 as the Earth \u2018passes\u2019 Mars.\u00a0 This shift in apparent motion usually happens a couple of months before a planet reaches a position opposite the Earth from the Sun (naturally called \u2018opposition\u2019).\u00a0 Jupiter reaches opposition on Dec 6-7 when it will also be the closest to Earth (making it a prime time for observing the Gas Giant).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Saturn\u2019s Rings are tipped 5 degrees from edgewise and this angle will decrease to 3 degrees by the new year.\u00a0 Our view of them will be directly edge-on from March 23 to May 6, 2025.\u00a0 Look for <\/span>Mercury<\/b> in the East 40 minutes before sunrise starting at mid-month.\u00a0 The red star <\/span>Antares <\/b>in <\/span>Scorpius, the Scorpion <\/b>will be just to the right of Mercury so perhaps it will help you find the Sun\u2019s nearest planetary neighbor as it brightens from mag +1.2 to -0.4 as the month progresses.\u00a0 On Dec 28, 40 minutes before sunrise, the <\/span>Old Crescent Moon<\/b> will look like the red star Antares is sitting on its upper horn if that also helps you locate the <\/span>Eye of the Scorpion.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We will jump deeper in the past for our historical astronomical event this month to prehistoric times.\u00a0 When my\u00a0 students used to ask, \u2018What was the oldest astronomical observation?\u201d I used to tell them (tongue firmly planted in cheek), \u201cWhen Ugluk the caveman first pointed at the sky and said \u2018Unnggg\u2019to impress his fellow cave dwellers.\u201d\u00a0 We now know people have found 30,000-year-old paintings of astronomical events on the walls of caves.\u00a0 These, then, would be considered the oldest astronomical observations recorded by humans.\u00a0 Unfortunately, no words (or \u2018Unnggg\u2019s) were recorded with the pictures.<\/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

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Top Piece Video – Starbuck singing about Moonlight back in 1976 . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AstroCal – December 2024   \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Although the shortest daylight of this year falls on the Winter Solstice – December 21, it will only take a few weeks before the daylight hours begin to slowly lengthen again.\u00a0 I won\u2019t go into my usual complaint about \u2018how nice it would be to stay on Daylight Saving Time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3346"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3349,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3346\/revisions\/3349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}