Your Night Sky for Dec. 2, 2020

Moon and Stars

Since the Full Moon was Nov. 30, the sky is still quite bright, but that will change a little each night as the moon begins to fade away. On Dec. 13 the Geminid Meteor Shower will peak and is going to be wonderful this year! I will tell you all about that next week.

On Dec. 2 and 3, the moon will join up with the constellation Gemini the Twins. They rise in the East and will be up all night. Right now the bright moon will fade out the faint stars, but the bright ones Pollux and Castor should be visible.

They will be just to the upper left of the moon. Pollux is the lower one and Castor is the upper one. This constellation is just to the left of Orion the Hunter. The Milky Way runs between the two constellations with a little bit of each constellation sitting in front of the Milky Way.

What's interesting about this constellation is that it's the radiant for the Geminid Meteor Shower! So when the moon goes away and you view the meteors, you will also be able to see the entire constellation.

The moon will rise in the east mid to late evening as the month progresses, with it rising a little later each evening. Its last quarter is Dec. 7 and the New Moon is Dec. 14 to help us watch the Gemenids. The next full moon is Dec. 29. Have you noticed how early the Sun sets now? It's close to 4:30 giving us an early night to view the night sky.

I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving. Now we have to plan for Christmas. We will soon be going out to cut down our tree for Christmas. I miss having Winterfest, but we all have to stay safe and healthy. So, take good care of yourself. I suspect we will soon have a good vaccine for the COVID-19. I used to be a nurse, and for a while I was also a Navy Nurse. So I know what it means to stay safe.