Throughout December, there are several
naked-eye objects in the eastern sky around 8:00 PM. Jupiter and
Saturn are well placed about 45 and 50 deg above the horizon. Jupiter
shines at magnitude -2.8 and Saturn at mag 1.9. Notice that the negative
magnitude is brighter than the positive, representing another instance
of our archaic ways of labeling and talking about some astronomical phenomena.
A pair of binoculars and a steady hand (or a support) will show you the
major satellites of Jupiter, and even those of Saturn, if you're lucky.
The Pleiades, or the Seven Sisters,
a star cluster near Jupiter, is readily visible to the naked eye and a
beautiful sight in binoculars - actually better than in a telescope.
The Orion Nebula in Orion's sword is a naked-eye object, also readily visible
in binoculars, and glorious in a modest scope.
The Crab Nebula, near the bright star
Aldebaran, requires a telescope to be seen. The Crab is the fuzzy
remnant of a supernova that flared up in 1054, observed in China - even
in the daytime - but not noted in Europe. The Andromeda Galaxy (not
on the chart) is now about 80 deg above the horizon, a fairly easy naked-eye
object in a dark sky. Good hunting! |
