The Night Sky This Month

The night sky for December 2021

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Sinopse

Northern HemisphereIan Morison tells us what we can see in the Northern Hemisphere night sky during December 2021.The PlanetsJupiter As darkness falls at the start of December, Jupiter, having a magnitude of -2.29 and an angular size of 38.3 arc seconds, may be seen in the south. It transits at 17:15 GMT with an elevation of ~24 degrees. By month's end its magnitude will have reduced slightly to -2.13 and its angular size to 35.36 arc seconds and it will be seen in the south southwest at nightfall. Happily, this year Jupiter has climbed up the ecliptic somewhat so the atmosphere will not hinder our view of the solar system's giant planet as much as it has in the last two years.Saturn Saturn precedes Jupiter into the sky and will be seen towards the south southwest at nightfall. It then shines with a magnitude of +0.7 with its disk 16 arc seconds across and the rings spanning some 37 arc seconds. By month's end, it has a reduced brightness of magnitude +0.71 with a 15.46 arc second disk. Sadly, its elevation w