Friday, December 20Now that the evening sky is Moon-free, it’s time to aim for fainter targets, including 12th-magnitude Comet 333P/LINEAR. Located in far northern Cygnus, close to where that constellation’s border meets those of Cepheus and Draco, LINEAR sits some 8.4° northeast of magnitude 3.8 Kappa (κ) Cygni tonight. The comet is roughly halfway along … Read more
If the weather is clear where you live on Tuesday evening (Dec. 17), look low above the east-northeast horizon at around 8:00 p.m. local standard time and you’ll see the waning gibbous moon, 89% illuminated, accompanied by a very bright and colorful star directly below it and two bright stars will above it. The two … Read more
Friday, December 13The bright gibbous Moon passes 4° north of Uranus at 5 A.M. EST. At that time, the Moon sits in Aries the Ram, while Uranus is just over the border in far western Taurus the Bull. The two set together around 5 A.M. local time. You might have better luck spotting the ice … Read more
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured this stunningly sharp view of Jupiter when the planet was near opposition in 2019. Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center) and M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley) Friday, December 6 Asteroid 15 Eunomia is making its way through central Auriga this month, passing numerous deep-sky objects along … Read more