Saturday: Imagine Opie and Andy Taylor walking down the dirt path at night to that fishing hole in the sky. They’d probably be looking to catch Pisces, the two fish already conveniently tied together with two ropes. The ropes are connected at the star Alrescha, Arabic for “the cord”. Alrescha is four and a half fists held upright and at arm’s length above due south at 8:30 p.m. It is also a fist and a half to the left of the very bright Mars. The fish are attached to lines of stars that branch out at one o’clock and three o’clock from Alrescha. By the way, “The Fishing Hole”, The Andy Griffith Show’s theme song, was rated the 20th best TV theme song of all time by ign.com. That’s too low of a ranking in my opinion.
Sunday: The Geminid meteor shower peaks tonight and tomorrow morning. Meteor showers are named after the constellation from which the meteors appear to originate. These meteors appear to come from a point in Gemini the twins. This point is about four fists above due east horizon at midnight tonight. You can follow this point throughout the night, as it will remain near the bright star Castor, the right hand star of the “twin” stars Pollux and Castor. By 4 am, it is four fists above the southwest horizon. This shower is typically one of the best ones of the year producing bright, medium speed meteors with up to 80 meteors per hour under ideal conditions near the peak. This year is nearly ideal because the Moon is nearly in its new phase, meaning it is not reflecting sunlight towards the Earth.
Most meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through the orbital trail of a comet. The broken off comet fragments collide with the Earth and burn up in the atmosphere. Astronomers had searched for a comet source for this shower since 1862 when the shower was first observed. Finally, in 1983, astronomers discovered the object that created the fragments that cause the meteor shower. To their surprise, it was a dark rock that looked like an asteroid, not a shiny icy comet. Astronomers named this object Asteroid 3200 Phaethon. For more information about the Geminid shower, go to https://goo.gl/f4qMqg.
Monday: Do you want to get excited but not too excited. Well, there is a total solar eclipse this morning. Excited! But it is not visible in North America. Less excited. The path of totality passes across southern South America, through the countries of Chile and Argentina. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes directly between the Earth and the Sun and blocks, or eclipses, the Sun. The last total solar eclipse visible in the United States was 2017 and the next will be 2024. For more information about today’s eclipse, including a live stream, go to https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2020-december-14.
Tuesday: Last week we learned that the early December evenings are getting darker earlier than any time of the year. While the sky is getting darker earlier, the nighttime sky is actually getting brighter due to the greater use of low energy LED bulbs. While these bulbs use much less energy that incandescent or compact fluorescent bulbs, researchers think that people and communities are using more of the bulbs and leaving them on longer. This is increasing light pollution near cities. You can get more illumination on the subject at https://goo.gl/1CdqcH.
Wednesday: The bright star Capella is nearly straight overhead at 11:30 p.m.
Thursday: Today is the start of the Saturnalia celebration, an ancient Roman festival in honor of their god Saturn, the god of agriculture and time. The holiday featured a break from work and school, a public banquet, and private gift giving. Some of these customs influenced the secular aspects of Christmas celebrations. After Sheldon hugged Penny on The Big Bang Theory, Leonard proclaimed, “It’s a Saturnalia miracle.” See the season 2, episode 11 miracle on YouTube. It would not be a miracle if you saw the planet Saturn today. It is about a fist above the southwestern horizon at 5:00 p.m., to the upper left of the much brighter Venus. On December 21, there will be a rare but not miraculous conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter. They will be 6 arc min apart. For comparison, the Full Moon has a diameter of 30 arc minutes. For more information about this rare event, go to https://youtu.be/qLQICZ98v1Q.
Friday: Mars is five fists above due south at 7:30 p.m.
The positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky, go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.
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