December 2024 Night Sky Calendar

Venus dominates the southwestern sky at dusk with Saturn higher up in the same direction at nightfall. Jupiter is so bright in the east it practically shouts “Look at me!” Mars is just a month away from its closest approach to Earth in nearly two years. Noticeably brighter than it was even a month ago, the Red Planet tempts us to step outside as early as 8:30-9 p.m. local time to watch it climb the eastern sky below the Gemini Twins.

December brings the longest and coldest nights of the year for northern hemisphere skywatchers. Lots of brilliant stars, too! More than any other season. Seeing the familiar faces of Orion, Gemini and the Big and Little Dogs makes it easy to forget the cold. Add in snow and a little moonlight, and I’d call it starry, winter perfection.

Highlights this month include the annual Geminid meteor shower, richest of the year. From a dark, moonless sky on the peak night, 80-100 meteors per hour might be seen. Unfortunately, the bright, waxing gibbous moon will compromise the show and reduce that number by about half. That’s still enough to make the effort worthwhile. Bundle up, relax in a reclining chair under a warm blanket and watch the meteors fly!

Our featured constellation is Taurus the Bull, home to the planet Jupiter this season. Taurus is visible in the eastern sky as early as 6:30 p.m. local time, but if you wait till 7:30 or later it rises higher and gets easier to see. Surprise! It really does resemble a bull. When you “connect the dots,” Taurus has two star-tipped horns and a face outlined by the V-shaped Hyades cluster and bright, red-orange star Aldebaran. In Greek mythology, the figure represents Zeus disguised as a bull attempting to woo Europa, a Phoenician princess.

Download the free Stellarium Mobile app for Android and iPhone to help you find and identify the current planets and constellations. Do a Google search then install the app, set it in night mode (red screen) and point your phone skyward. For a free December sky map and calendar go to www.skymaps.com/downloads.html

December 2024 night sky happenings

Events (a.m. indicates the event happens in the morning sky):

Dec. 1 – New Moon. Not visible because it’s near the sun in the daytime sky.

Dec. 4 – Pretty conjunction of the crescent moon and Venus this evening. They pair up in the southwestern sky at dusk about 2.5 degrees apart. Binoculars will easily corral the duo in the same field of view. Look 45 minutes to an hour after sunset.

Dec. 7 – Jupiter brightest and closest to Earth for the year. The biggest planet is in Taurus the Bull to the left of Aldebaran and the V-shaped Hyades star cluster. Opposition means it’s opposite the sun in the sky, rising in the east when the sun sets and setting the following morning around sunrise.

Dec. 7 – Thick crescent moon shines to the right of Saturn tonight.

Dec. 8 – First quarter moon. Even though you’ll see a half-moon it’s called first quarter because it’s completed a quarter of its orbit around Earth since new moon phase.

Dec. 13 – Waxing gibbous moon shines above Jupiter tonight.

Dec. 13-14 (p.m and a.m.) – Peak of the annual Geminid meteor shower. You can start watching as early as 9 p.m. local time but the number of meteors increasesafter midnight into the early morning hours. To preserve as much of your night vision as possible face away from the bright moon. You’ll know you’re seeing a Geminid if you can trace it back to the constellation Gemini the Twins, located to the east and above Orion.

Dec. 15 – Full Cold Moon. Shines to the left of Jupiter tonight. The moon sits in nearly the same spot the sun occupied on the summer solstice. Around midnight when it stands highest in the sky, shadows cast will be identical in length to those seen under the summer sun.

Dec. 17-18 (p.m. and a.m.) – Fine conjunction of the waning gibbous moon and bright Mars. They’ll be closest − less than half a moon diameter apart − in the wee hours of the 18th.

Dec. 20 (a.m.) – Waning gibbous moon less than 2 degrees to the left (east) of Leo’s brightest star Regulus this morning.

Dec. 21 – Winter solstice at 3:19 a.m. Central Time. Official start of winter. Longest night and shortest day of the year. The sun rises and sets farthest to the south today. Starting tomorrow it turns back north and the amount of daylight begins to increase.

Dec. 22 (a.m.) – Last quarter moon and peak of the annual Ursid meteor shower. The Ursids produce about 10 meteors per hour from a streaming point just below the Little Dipper’s Bowl in the northern sky. The shower is active all night.

Dec. 23-31 (a.m.) – Mercury shines brightly low in the southeastern sky about 45 minutes to an hour before sunrise not far north of Antares, the brightest star in Scorpius the Scorpion.

Dec. 28 (a.m.) – Delicate morning crescent in a close conjunction with Antares low in the southeastern sky during morning twilight with Mercury nearby. Use binoculars.

Bob King is an amateur astronomer, author, and passionate educator. He served as a photographer and photo editor at the Duluth News Tribune for 39 years and taught at the UMD planetarium. Bob’s work had a great impact on Voyageurs National Park. To achieve International Dark Sky Park certification, the park was required to host dark sky education events. Through the Night Sky Explorer webinars, the Conservancy was able to fulfill this component and help secure the certification for Voyageurs National Park. We can’t thank Bob King enough for sharing his talents and knowledge with the Conservancy community to support dark sky preservation.