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Keep looking up!
"Four Fabulous Planets For The Holidays"
Greetings, greetings fellow star gazers. This year the cosmos is very happy to bring you free of charge four fabulous planets for your holiday viewing pleasure. In early evening you can see dazzling Venus, rouge gold Mars, and an exquisite ringed Saturn and in early morning before sunrise the king of the planets itself, Jupiter. And if you're one of the lucky ones to get a telescope as a holiday gift the viewing will be absolutely super, although as always, this foursome will look great to just the naked eye. Let me show you.
O.K., we've got our skies set up for the last two weeks of December about 45 minutes after sunset facing southwest where close to the horizon you'll see the planet which many people have mistaken for the Christmas star all month because it's been so dazzlingly bright, Venus; the planet often called Earth's twin sister because it's almost the same size, 8,000 miles wide. Like our Moon it goes through various phases and through a telescope it always looks rounder and closer to full when it's farther away from us. If you had watched it through a small telescope for the past several months you would have seen it grow in size as it steadily came closer to us. But even though it got bigger and bigger as it got closer its phases got smaller. It was only 25% lit on December 10th but by New Year's Eve it will be a skinny 6% lit crescent. And if you start watching this week with a small telescope you'll actually be able to watch it shrink like a waning Moon.
Around 6 p.m. look southeast and Mars is still gleaming a bright rouge-gold and is still almost as bright as Sirius the brightest star but it is steadily losing its brightness so catch it now while it still dazzles the eye. Only 4,000 miles wide its features will become more difficult to see as it zooms away from us. Around 9 p.m. face slightly northeast and exquisite ringed Saturn, which looks good in even the cheapest department store telescope is getting ready to take over planet viewing. And you'll be able to watch it steadily brighten week after week. 75,000 miles wide it is not as bright as Venus and Mars because it is so incredibly much farther away.
And now for our last planet face southeast about an hour before sunrise and 88,000 mile wide Jupiter will be the brightest thing in the sky. Through even the smallest telescope you can see its four largest Moons, which look like pinpoints of light which constantly change their position as they orbit the king. And on Monday December 26th an exquisite waning crescent Moon will be parked just above it making a wonderful sky duo. Likewise the next morning Tuesday December 27th an even skinnier crescent Moon will be parked just below it making yet another exquisite twosome. So there you have it the king of the planets in the morning and Venus, Mars and Saturn at night. Four planets gift wrapped for the holidays courtesy of the cosmos. Keep looking up!
*compliments of the PBS show - The Stargazer*
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