In the Sky This Month

Winter is just starting, but you can already find a hint of spring in the pre-dawn sky. The stars and constellations that are in view a couple of hours before sunrise will be in view a couple of hours after sunset in late April.

Orion is climbing into prominence in winter’s evening sky. The hunter clears the eastern horizon by about an hour and a half after sunset. He’s led by his shield. It’s not as easy to see as his belt or other features, but the shield’s brightest star does stand out.

Saturn, the second-largest planet in the solar system, stands near the Moon this evening. It looks like a bright star. A small telescope will reveal Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, which looks like a small star near the planet.

As twilight fades this evening, the crescent Moon is well up in the southwest. The planet Saturn is to the upper left of the Moon, and looks like a bright star. Jupiter climbs into good view by 7 or 7:30, which the twin stars of Gemini to its left and upper left.

Alpha Camelopardalis is the third-brightest star of Camelopardalis, the giraffe. It’s dimmed by its distance of about 5,500 light-years, so you need a dark sky to see it. It is one of the most distant stars visible to the eye alone.

If you’d like to know how dark your night sky is, then look high in the northeast after the Moon sets this evening for the stars of Camelopardalis, the giraffe. If you can see any of them, then your sky is pretty dark.

Rigel, the brightest star of Orion the hunter, is low in the east-southeast in early evening, to the right of Orion’s Belt. It is more than 20 times as massive as the Sun, dozens of times larger, and roughly 100,000 times brighter.

Today is the December solstice, which marks the start of winter in the northern hemisphere. It’s the darkest time of the year, offering many hours of darkness for watching the stars.

Winter arrives in the northern hemisphere at 9:03 a.m. CST tomorrow. That is the moment of the December solstice, when the Sun stands farthest south for the year. Winter ends 89 days later, making it the shortest season of the year.

Capella is the brightest star of Auriga, the charioteer. Its name comes from a Latin phrase that means the she-goat. It’s 43 light-years away. What looks like a single brilliant star is actually two sparklers, both of which are much bigger and brighter than the Sun.