Tuesday, December 22, 2020
Thursday December 24 to Thursday December 31
The Full Moon is Wednesday December 30. The bright planet Venus is low in the twilight morning skies. Jupiter and Saturn, just past the great conjunction, are low in the twilight skies. Dimming but still bright Mars now dominates the evening skies.The waxing Moon is near Mars on the 24th.
Evening sky at 21:01 ACDST (30 minutes after sunset) on Saturday, December 26 facing west as seen from Adelaide. The pair of Jupiter and Saturn are low above the western horizon. The pair are now past their spectacular close approach but still close together and visible together in wide field telescope eyepieces.
Whole sky at 21:38 ACDST (60 minutes after sunset), on Saturday, December 26 as seen from
Adelaide.
Evening sky at 22:18 ACDST (90 minutes after sunset) on Thursday, December 24 facing north as seen from Adelaide. Mars is above
the northern horizon near the waxing Moon. Mars is past opposition, but is still excellent.
Morning sky on Saturday, December 26 showing the eastern sky as seen from Adelaide at 5:10 am ACDST (45 minutes before sunrise). Venus is getting lower to the horizon. You may need a level, unobstructed horizon to see this.
The Full Moon is Wednesday December 30. The Moon is at apogee, when it is furthest from the earth, on the 25th'
The
insets show the telescopic views of Jupiter and Saturn at the same
magnification at this time.
Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time (30 minutes after sunset), click to embiggen.
Adelaide.
Three bright planets are visible stretching west to east. Jupiter, Saturn and Mars.
Similar views will be seen
elsewhere at the equivalent local time (60 minutes after sunset). click to embiggen.
The inset shows the telescopic view of Mars at this time.
Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset), click to embiggen.
Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time (45 minutes before sunrise), click to embiggen.
Mercury is lost in the twilight.
Venus is still visible low above the horizon in the morning. You may need a level, unobstructed horizon to see Venus.
Mars is readily visible in the evening sky above the north-western horizon in the early evening. The waxing Moon is near Mars on the 24th. Mars was at opposition, when it is biggest and brightest as seen from Earth, on October the 14th, but is still worthwhile observing. Observing details and more at the Mars Opposition site. Mars.
Jupiter can be readily seen in the low in early evening sky in the west. Jupiter and Saturn start out less than half a finger-width apart at the beginning of the week but slowly draw away from each other being just over a finger-width apart at the end of the week. However, they are also lowering in the twilight and become progressively harder to see.
Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.
Star Map via Virtual sky. Use your mouse to scroll around and press 8 when your pointer is in the map to set to the current time.
Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.
Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/
Venus is still visible low above the horizon in the morning. You may need a level, unobstructed horizon to see Venus.
Mars is readily visible in the evening sky above the north-western horizon in the early evening. The waxing Moon is near Mars on the 24th. Mars was at opposition, when it is biggest and brightest as seen from Earth, on October the 14th, but is still worthwhile observing. Observing details and more at the Mars Opposition site. Mars.
Jupiter can be readily seen in the low in early evening sky in the west. Jupiter and Saturn start out less than half a finger-width apart at the beginning of the week but slowly draw away from each other being just over a finger-width apart at the end of the week. However, they are also lowering in the twilight and become progressively harder to see.
Saturn too is visible low in the early evening skies in the west.
Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.
Star Map via Virtual sky. Use your mouse to scroll around and press 8 when your pointer is in the map to set to the current time.
Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.
Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/
Labels: weekly sky
# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 11:54 pm 
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