These notes are intended to provide a casual sky watcher or someone already into amateur astronomy living in Eastern Australia with a summary of what is happening in the night sky in December 2012. The finder charts have been produced for an observer based in Brisbane (Queensland, Australia) but will be useful for observers elsewhere in Eastern Australia.
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Planets for December 2012
Jupiter is visible above the Eastern horizon as a brilliant star as evening twilight ends. As December progresses, it will climb higher in the sky for a given time. Mars is visible low above the Western horizon as evening twilight ends for most of December. It is however too low and too far from Earth to be worth considering pointing a telescope at.
Saturn and Venus are visible above the Eastern horizon prior to the start of morning twilight. Mercury is visible in the morning twilight very low above the Eastern horizon for the first few weeks of December and reaches its greatest elongation West of the Sun on 5 December 2012. Mercury then moves back towards the Sun after the 5th due to its orbital motion around the Sun.
Individual sky events (December 2012)
All times listed for the AEST time zone (U.T. plus 10 hours). Add one hour to times listed if your state or territory follows daylight savings time.
December 1: Mercury at greatest latitude North
December 3: 12 pm (Midday) Jupiter at opposition
December 5: 9 am Mercury at greatest elongation West
December 7: 1.31 am Last Quarter Moon
December 9: 6 pm Minor planet Vesta at opposition
December 11: The crescent Moon, Saturn, Venus and Spica (the brightest star in the ancient Greek constellation Virgo ‘The Virgin) form a temporary line in the morning dawn sky.
December 13: 9 am Moon at perigee 357, 075 km
December 13: 6.42 pm New Moon
December 14: 4 am Uranus stationary
December 14: Mercury 0.4 degrees North East of Beta Scorpii Morning twilight and low on horizon. Very difficult.
December 15: Mars to left of and above Moon Very low above Western horizon. Mars is currently too far from Earth and too low on the horizon to be worth pointing a telescope at.
December 17: Neptune 0.3 degrees South East of e Aquarii Look above Western horizon at end of evening twilight
December 19: Venus 0.3 degrees North West of Beta Scorpii Morning dawn sky.
December 20: 3:19 pm First Quarter Moon
December 21: 9 pm Summer Solstice
December 23: 4 am Minor planet Juno in conjunction with the Sun
December 23: Comet 2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) 0.7 degrees North East of Mu 1 Scorpii Low above South Eastern horizon immediately before twilight begins. Likely to be very difficult for medium size amateur telescopes due to the faintness of the comet and atmospheric absorption of it’s light.
December 23: 9 pm Venus 6 degrees North of Antares Morning twilight above South East horizon
December 24: Mercury in descending node
December 25: Merry Christmas
December 26: 7 am Moon at apogee 406, 098 km from Earth
December 26: If Santa has been kind to you and you now own a telescope, wait till the sky is dark and point it at the bright star to the left of, and above the Moon as soon as the sky is dark. You will discover it is really the planet Jupiter.
December 27: Comet 2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) 0.3 degrees South West of NGC 6281 Seeing both objects is likely to be very difficult for medium size amateur telescopes due to the faintness of the comet and then atmospheric absorption of the light of both objects.
December 28: 8.21 pm Full Moon
December 29: Mars at greatest latitude South
December 30: Midnight Pluto in conjunction with the Sun
December 2012 Meteor Showers
The Geminid meteor shower is active from 30 November to 18 December. The maximum for the meteor shower is predicted to occur this year on the morning of Friday 14 December 2012.
More information about meteor showers can be found on the International Meteor Organisations website at www.imo.net.
For Further Information
Planet and Moon Rise/Set Times
Planet and Moon rise/set times for 2012 can be found here on this website.
Customised Astronomy & Satellite Viewing information
Information on how to obtain customised astronomy & satellite viewing information for your location can be found here on this website.
References
The information in this post has been prepared using the following references.
Astronomy 2012, Quasar Publishing http://www.quasarastronomy.
Sky Safari Pro Ipad app, http://www.southernstars.com/
Most beautiful planet in our solar system with its 3 rings