Sky this Week
Highlights Dec 9 to Dec 15, 2007
- Geminid Meteor shower on Thursday night (100 per hour predicted at 1 to 2 am)
- Mars is approaching opposition and is in good position for viewing around 8:30 pm
- Comet Holmes is still a great object to view in binoculars
International Space Station
No bright passes this week.
Sun
The Sun rises at 7:11 to 7:16 am and sets 4:38 to 4:39 pm this week. A fair size region 10978 is visible about midway between east limb and center disk. It is currently growing rapidly in size and is 220 millionths solar hemisphere in area (+38% increase in size since yesterday). Solar activity is predicted to be at low levels according to the Space Weather Prediction Center.
Moon
Moon is in first quarter next week on Dec 17 at 03:18 am.
Planets
Venus rises at 3:50 am in constellation Libra and is very, very bright magnitude at -4.
Mars rises around 5:49 pm to 5:15 pm this week and increases in brightness to magnitude -1.6 and to 15.9 arc sec across. It is in good position for viewing around 8:30 pm.
Saturn rises 10:34 pm by the end of the week in constellation Leo. It is magnitude +1 in brightness.
Dark Sky
Still a great week to get some dark sky views, though maybe just from the backyard. Moon is still not much of problem until late in the week. On Saturday it sets at 10:38 pm.
Comets
Comet 17P Holmes is getting larger and dimmer in constellation Perseus. It is over a degree across and easy to spot in binoculars even in light polluted skies.
Comet 8P Tuttle is now about magnitude +9 in constellation Cepheus.
Comet 46P Wirtanen is magnitude +11.6 in constellation Aquarius. Look for it early in the evening around 6pm.
(See SkyHound.com or Seiichi Yoshida’s Comet pages for charts and additional information).
Meteor Showers
Geminid meteor shower peaks Thursday night, Dec 13-14 this week. Moonset is 8:24 pm, so its not a problem. The American Meteor Society says the average is usually about 100 per hour at the peak time from 1 to 2 am. Look half way up in the sky in any direction. See the American Meteor Society webpages at http://www.amsmeteors.org for more information