Podcaster: Ralph & Paul
Title : Awesome Astronomy’s December Sky Guide
Organization: Awesome Astronomy
Link : www.awesomeastronomy.com
Description: What to look out, and up, for in December. We take you on a tour of the planets available this month to northern hemisphere observers – with the show-stopper Jupiter, Venus, Uranus and Neptune in the evening sky and Saturn, Mars & Mercury for the early risers. We take a look at the moon and suggest some tricky ‘libration craters’ for you to find. Comets ISON & Lovejoy grab our attentions as we look forward to two distant visitors that we hope will provide beautiful naked eye and telescope views during December. The Geminids & Ursids provide this month’s meteor showers, while Paul finishes off with a round up of the most interesting star clusters and nebulae on offer in the constellations of Taurus and Gemini.
Bio: Awesome Astronomy is the show for anyone and everyone who has even the slightest interest in astronomy and science.
Join Ralph & Paul at the beginning of each month, for an informative and fun astronomy programme telling you what to look out (and up) for every month. You can be guaranteed a passion for astronomy, simple explanations of complex and fundamental topics, space and science news, absorbing interviews and listeners’ astronomy questions answered.
As both presenters have been accused of being a little skeptical in the past, you can also expect everything to be frivolous but fact-based
Today’s sponsor: This episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” is sponsored by — no one. We still need sponsors for many days in 2013, so please consider sponsoring a day or two. Just click on the “Donate” button on the lower left side of this webpage, or contact us at signup@365daysofastronomy.org.
Transcript:
December: and with the Sun reaching its lowest point in the sky for the Northern Hemisphere on December the 21st we now have the longest darkest skies of the year to enjoy, its just a shame its so cold!
First a look at our planetary neighbours, with of course Jupiter still dominating proceedings and really starting to put on a spectacular show. Sitting in Gemini and spending much of the month near star Wasat or Delta Geminorum, it’s incredibly bright at -2.4 and very easy to locate. We approach opposition through the month, it occurs on January 5th and this means the disc is going to continue to grow in size, the view of the cloud detail will improve with every day and by month’s end you’ll be able to enjoy a whole ten hour rotation of the planet in a single night.
Three more planets are available for the evening observers, starting with the very obvious and stunningly beautiful Venus which will be visible after sunset low to the western horizon. It’ll be shining at -4.6 magnitude and I think it’s one of the most wonderful sights to be seen with the naked eye when it’s sitting in that deep blue glow of twilight, though that is perhaps the best way to view it, as the altitude and its month long movement towards the sun as it approaches inferior conjunction next month, mean that Venus is not a great telescope target at the moment.
Neptune and Uranus are high in the southern sky after sunset sitting in Aquarius and Pisces respectively. Both are now a long time past opposition and Neptune, especially, presents a tiny and very dim disc. Both are visible in binoculars, always worth a look, but don’t expect much.
For the early risers, the sky has three planets for your viewing pleasure with Mars in Virgo slowly improving in size and brightness, but still a long way from decent observing for small scopes. There’s Mercury, low in the predawn sky and drawing ever closer to the Sun as it approaches superior conjunction on the 29th and lastly there’s the ring world, Saturn, in the constellation Libra, back after vanishing behind the Sun and pretty much where we left it back in the autumn.
The moon is new at the start of the month on December 3rd with full moon following 14 days later on December 17th. The moon gives us a nice occultation on the 11th December when the moon passes in front of Epsilon Piscium just after 2200 UT and reappears around an hour later if your are viewing from the centre of the UK.
Good libration craters for this month can be seen along the eastern side this month both in the south with pontecoulant on the 7th, gum 9th, gibbs 12th and in the north with de sitter on the 18th.
There are two meteor showers of note this month with the Geminids taking centre stage supported by the Ursids. The Geminids, peaking on the 13th-14th the moon will be in the way of what many consider to be the best shower of the year with a zenithal hourly rate of 120. The Gemininds are the dust trail of asteroid 3200 phatheon and usually have some of the brightest and most impressive meteors of any shower. The Ursids are a lesser shower and their peak of the 21st 22nd is also affected by the moon and with a zenithal hourly rate of 5-10 your better bet will be the gemininds a few days before if you want to catch some meteor action this month.
A last solar system mention should be made of Comet ISON and Comet Lovejoy. when this guide is recorded we’re before perihelion for both objects. Lovejoy’s been the better comet so far, sneaking up on many observers who were transfixed by the so far dissapointing ISON. both will move into the patch of sky that contains Hercules through December, check out our website for updates and positons and while Lovejoy’s likely to fade with distance, as it was at its closest to earth on the 19th November, keep fingers crossed that ISON may finally deliver on some of that promise in the early part of Deecember.
This month I’ll point you in the direction of deep sky objects in Tarus and Gemini, which are both in a great positon for evening viewing and placed high in the south later in the night.
Taurus the Bull is home to three of the most famous objects in the night sky. Two clusters, M45 the Pleiades and the larger Hyades, which is one of the closest clusters to earth after the Ursa Major moving group. These are impressive naked eye and binocular targets, with M45 being one of the most stunning objects anywhere in the sky. Then there is of course messier Number 1, the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant from a star that was seen to die in 1054. it sits just above the bright star at the end of the lower horn of the bull, zeta tauri, which itself is an eclipsing binary with a period of 133 days. Look out for open clusters NGC 1647 and 1746 that sit within the horns and do not leave Taurus without trying to find NGC1540 the Crystal Ball Planetary Nebula, which was discovered by William herschel and has the distinction of being the first such nebula to be recognised as such.
Moving on to the Twins Gemini, which at the moment have a stunningly bright interloper in the form of Jupiter. We then have the famous heads of the twins Castor and Pollux, the upper star, closer to capella being Castor, which is an easy and very beautiful binary star. Gemini is in the opposite part of the sky to the milkyway so is sparsely populated with deep sky objects but what it does have is certainly worth a look and here you will find the Eskimo nebula, a planetary nebula also known as NGC2392 and the Medusa Nebula another planetary Abell 21, an old nebula that needs a large scope and an OIII filter. M35 is a beautiful and bright open cluster that in a dark sky is naked eye visible, while those with bigger scopes might like to treat themselves to the stunning NGC2158. Close to M35 but much further away at 12,000 light years.
So wrap up warm, get the cocoa on and I wish you clear skies and dark nights.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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