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| This month, we feature the eastern sky
at 8:00 PM on December 23, the night of our star party. Please note
that the bottom of the chart is not the horizon; instead the bottom line
is at an altitude of about 30 deg.
Jupiter and Saturn are well placed for viewing in the eastern sky about 50 and 55 deg above the horizon, shining at magnitudes of -2.8 and 1.9. Remember, negative magnitudes mean brighter objects! Compare these magnitudes with that of Venus, -4.3, almost dazzling in the southwest. You may be able to glimpse Uranus, mag 5.9, in binoculars about 1 deg to the upper right of Venus (about 1/6 of a binocular field). Cassiopoeia, well above Polaris, makes a Big M this time of year. In the spring, when the constellation is low in the northeast, it makes a Big W. Its orientation changes systematically as the sky rotates westward around the celestial north pole, about 0.8 deg away from Polaris. Why isn't Polaris exactly at the celestial north pole? (The answer here, of course, is something like, "Because!") The Andromeda Galaxy, M31, our nearest major galactic neighbor, is visible to the naked eye as a pale smudge about 75 deg above the horizon. Our old friend Orion is also in the eastern sky, below the region shown on the star chart. We will of course renew our acquaintance with this familiar constellation at our forthcoming star party. As he rises in the east, Orion is lying on his right side. He stands upright as he moves into the southern sky, and when he is ready to call it a night and retire in the west, he lies down on his left side. |
You can print a copy of this star chart so you can take it outside.
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