Night Sky for December 30, 2014 Looked for Venus yet? It hasnt been able to do an eyecatching Christmas Star show this year because its stuck in the twilight, situated low in the WSW at dusk and setting only an hour after the sun. It wont be 2 hours away from the sun until late April. Venus is on the opposite side of the sun from us and travelling at 35 km/sec. Earths orbiting in the same direction at a comparable speed of about 30 km/sec, so the two planets are almost level-pegging on opposite sides of the sun. Mars is visible in the evening but doesnt look like anything much - you could easily mistake it for a medium-bright star, slightly orange in colour, in the west at nightfall. Its setting at about 9:40pm. Big, bright Jupiter makes its appearance at about 10:30pm, rising in the ENE. It culminates (reaches its highest elevation) high in the north around 3:30am. Jupiters a good target for those of you with Christmas telescopes. Its by far the brightest starlike object thats visible for most of the night. Saturns also back in sight now, rising in the ESE at about 3:20am. Half moon (first quarter) was Sunday night. Then the gibbous phases - hunchbacked moon, or half moon with a hump - will take us through to the first full moon for 2015. Thats on January 5th.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 13:28:57 +0000
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