Special to CosmicTribune.com, December 17, 2023, 2023

Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 17

■ This evening, spot Saturn about 3° upper right of the Moon. The Moon is 1.3 light-seconds from us. Saturn is currently 84 light minutes away in the background, almost 4,000 times farther from us.

■ Algol dips to its minimum brightness, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple hours centered on 6:17 p.m. EST. Algol takes several additional hours to rebrighten.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 18

■ This is the time of year when Orion shines in the east-southeast after dinnertime, walking upward. He’s well up now, but his three-star Belt is still nearly vertical.

The Belt points up toward Aldebaran and, even higher, the Pleiades. In the other direction, it points down to where bright Sirius will rise around 8 p.m. to twinkle furiously.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 19

■ First-quarter Moon (exact at 1:39 p.m. EST). Upper right of it after dinnertime is the Great Square of Pegasus, starting to tilt up on one corner. The Square’s upper left edge points diagonally down nearly at the Moon.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20

■ The Moon in approaching Jupiter night by night, as shown below.

To the right of the Moon this evening (outside the frame) is the Great Square of Pegasus.

Cows may not jump over the Moon, but the Moon jumps over Jupiter between this Thursday and Friday evenings.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21

■ Now Jupiter is only about 7° left of the Moon in early evening. Watch then draw closer together through the night.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22

■ The Moon has passed Jupiter in the last 24 hours. The bright planet now shines to the Moon’s right at dusk; upper right of it later.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23

■ The waxing gibbous Moon is about 4° or 5° to the right of the Pleiades in early evening (for North America). Binoculars help with the Pleiades through the moonlight.

Watch the Moon draw closer to them hour by hour, finally passing only about 1° or 2° south of them shortly before setting in the northwest around the first light of dawn Sunday morning.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 24

■ And now the bright gibbous Moon, two days from full, has jumped to the lower left (east) of the Pleiades in early evening.

Around 11 p.m. tonight the Moon shines just about as close to the zenith as you will ever see it (from your mid-northern latitude), “casting lustre of midday on objects below.” Your Moon shadow at that time will be the shortest you’ll ever see it. Go look.

The Moon will do very nearly the same close zenith pass about an hour later each night for the next several nights. The Moon will be full on the night of the 26th.

■ Sirius and Procyon in the balance. Sirius, the Dog Star, sparkles low in the east-southeast as evening advances. Procyon, the Little Dog Star, shines in the east about two fist-widths at arm’s length to Sirius’s left.

  Saturn and Jupiter, The sky: December 17-24: The Moon