I love December stargazing. There’s magic in the air this holiday season and also in the Everett heavens as these long nights are blessed with some of the best constellations of the year.
One thing I love about December is that you can get an early start to your star watching. By 6 p.m. it’s plenty dark enough. However around Dec. 6 we’ll have a high, bright full moon blasting the sky with its reflected sunlight. True stargazing can resume around Dec. 10 when the moon rises later in the evening and isn’t so full.
Despite the pre-winter chill there are still signs of summer in the early evening western sky. The Summer Triangle of stars: Vega, Altair, and Deneb, the brightest stars in their respective constellations, can be seen. This is the last call for the Northern Cross and the Summer Triangle, because next month the night side of the Earth will turn away from that part of space.
The great horse Pegasus is riding high in the south-southwestern sky with Cassiopeia the Queen, the one that looks like a bright W, in the high northern sky. The Big Dipper is still very low in the northern sky, but you’ll notice that from night to night it will gradually get higher, standing diagonally on its handle.
The later you stay up in the evening the more you’ll see of the best part of December skies rising in the east. By 8 to 9 p.m. Orion the Hunter, that wonderful winter constellation, can easily be seen rising. Its calling card is the three bright stars in a row that make up Orion’s belt. Preceding Orion are the bright autumn constellations Taurus the Bull, with the wonderful Pleiades starcluster, and Auriga, the constellation that looks like a lopsided pentagon with the bright star Capella. Auriga’s supposed to be a retired chariot driver turned goat farmer. Just to the north of Orion is the constellation Gemini the Twins, with the bright stars Castor and Pollux in position on the forehead of the Twins.
On the nights of Dec. 13 and 14, the Geminid meteor shower peaks. On those nights there will be a final quarter (half) moon that will white out at least some of the meteors, but the Geminids are so bright that it should still be a half way decent shooting star show.
Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and is author of the book, “Stars, a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations” published by Adventure Publications available at bookstores at http://www.adventurepublications.net.
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