Providing that snow clouds in the northern hemisphere don’t obstruct our view, all the visible planets can be seen in December. Venus and Mars will grace the early evening skies, with Mercury appearing during the first part of the month. Saturn and Jupiter rise later into the night and will be visible until sunrise. The Geminid Meteor Shower peaks on the 13th and 14th. Winter solstice occurs on December 22nd in the northern hemisphere, and starts summer for our “down-under” friends.
As December begins you may be able to catch a fleeting glimpse of Mercury at the edge of the western horizon at sunset. Watch each night at sunset and notice how he climbs higher out of the sunset and remains visible a bit longer. Mercury ingresses into tropical Capricorn on the 2nd at 4:34 p.m. EST. On the 9th, he reaches his greatest eastern elongation. Traveling as far east from the Sun as the speedy messenger is capable of venturing, he is visible at sunset for about a week before and after his greatest eastern elongation. After the 9th, watch for him to descend into the western horizon until he disappears from view. The Moon opposes Mercury on the 10th at 1:16 p.m. EST. Mercury opposes Saturn on the 13th at 9:14 a.m. EST. The opposition enables us to see Mercury set as Saturn rises. Mercury stations retrograde on the 17th at 11:01 a.m. EST and remains retrograde until January 6th. He will perfect opposition to Saturn again during his retrograde pass on the 22nd at 1:35 a.m. EST. This opposition will not be visible since Mercury will be about 10 degrees from the Sun at this time, traveling under the glow of the sun’s beams. Mercury reaches inferior conjunction with the Sun on the 26th at 8:11 p.m. EST. Mercury ingresses back into tropical Sagittarius during his retrograde period on the 30th at 2:52 p.m. EST.
When planets aspect each other near a retrogradation, they are capable of perfecting the aspect three times. It is the faster planet’s retrogradation that makes three passes over the slower mover’s position: direct, retrograde, and direct again. Saturn is retrograde the entire month, beginning at 12Cancer and ending at 09Cancer, traveling a distance of only 3 degrees. Mercury begins December at 27Sagittarius and ends at 29Sagittarius. However, speedy little Mercury travels all the way to 12Capricorn before going back through those degrees and into Sagittarius again. This enables Mercury to oppose Saturn twice this month, once on his first direct pass and again on his retrograde pass. Mercury’s third pass through the first decanate of Capricorn occurs in mid-January, when he is direct again. He will therefore oppose slower moving Saturn a third time then.
Retrogradation is an interesting phenomenon as the planets appear to stop and turn around to go back through the zodiacal degrees they just came from. The planets then appear to stop again, turn back around, and proceed in their direct eastern motion. Of course the planets don’t really stop and turn around; it just appears that way from a geocentric point of view. Why exactly does it look like that? It works a bit differently with the inner planets than the planets from Mars outward. Here is an easy exercise you can do right at your desk as you read this to understand how retrogradation works with the inner planets. Pretend your eyes are the Earth looking from the geocentric viewpoint. Place your bent left elbow on your desk in front of you, make a fist, call it the Sun and look directly at it. Call the direction you are facing south, since you face south to find the Ecliptic or Sun’s apparent path. On the left then is east; the right is west. Mercury is going to be a finger on your right hand. Put Mercury to the west (right) of your fist and trace a direct easterly motion behind the Sun. Pause for a moment when you get all the way to the east (left) just to notice the greatest eastern elongation. Then proceed to finish tracing the circle. You are now moving Mercury in front of the Sun and he’s moving in a westerly retrograde motion. Yet he never stopped to literally turn around. Midway through this retrograde pass, notice how he aligns between the Earth and Sun. This is the inferior conjunction that occurs halfway through the retrogradation period. Feel free to continue this path around to pause at the west and notice the greatest western elongation. When Mercury is opposite Earth on the other side of the Sun, it is called a superior conjunction. Mercury is not retrograde then because he is moving in the easterly direction you traced at the beginning of this exercise.
Venus is an ‘evening star’ popping into view along the western horizon as the glow of sunset dissipates and dark skies are upon us. Venus opposes Saturn at the 6th at 7:03 a.m. EST. Watch for Saturn to rise in east as Venus sets in the west. Venus ingresses into tropical Aquarius on the 21st at 1:33 a.m. EST. Visually we see the constellations as the sidereal zodiac. The difference between the tropical and sidereal zodiac is called ayanamsha. Currently the Lahiri Ayanamsha is 23*54’45. Venus begins the month in the constellation Sagittarius, setting around 6:30 p.m. in the northern hemisphere. By month’s end she will have ventured into the constellation Capricorn and set around 7:30 p.m. in the northern hemisphere. On the 11th, the Moon will rise as Venus sets. The two reach opposition at 6:55 a.m. On Christmas Day, the Moon conjuncts Venus at 12:17 p.m. EST. The set times of Venus in the southern hemisphere are 9:15 p.m. at the beginning of December and 9:30 by month’s end.
Mars comes into view overhead as the skies darken after sunset. On December 1st, the Moon conjuncts Mars at 2:00 p.m. EST. That evening, viewers in the northern hemisphere will notice the red planet just above a First Quarter Moon. On the 16th Mars ingresses into tropical Aries at 8:24 a.m. EST. Again, we witness him against the backdrop of the fixed stars that represents the sidereal zodiac. He travels along the dimmer stars of Pisces. Later on the 16th the Moon opposes Mars at 11:25 p.m. EST. This means that Mars rises around the time the Moon sets. The Moon joins Mars again in conjunction on the 30th at 4:55 a.m. EST. Mars will again hang just above a First Quarter Moon in the northern hemisphere. Mars sets around 1:00 a.m. at the beginning of the December and around 12:30 a.m. at month’s end. In the southern hemisphere, Mars hangs below the Moon at both conjunctions. Mars sets around 1:15 a.m. over Australia at the onset of the month and around midnight at December’s close.
Saturn rises around 7:30 p.m. in the northern hemisphere on December 1st. He will rise earlier and earlier each night. On the 10th, a recently Full Moon conjuncts Saturn at 6:01 p.m. EST. On the 23rd, the Moon opposes Saturn at 7:30 p.m. EST. Moonset will occur around the same time as Saturn rises. By December 31st he will rise in the east as the Sun sets in the west. The two oppose each other at 3:57 p.m. EST on that day. The glow of dawn will be upon us before we can witness Saturn’s descent into the western horizon. In the southern hemisphere Saturn rises around 11:00 p.m. at the beginning of December and 8:50 by month’s end.
Jupiter rises in the northern hemisphere around 12:45 a.m. on the 1st. The Moon opposes Jupiter on the 1st at 5:18 a.m. EST, which means that moon set will be around the same time as Jupiter’s rising. The Moon conjuncts Jupiter on the 16th at 1:55 a.m. EST. The Moon opposes Jupiter again on the 28th at 4:11 p.m. EST. By the 31st, Jupiter will rise around 11:00 p.m. in the northern hemisphere. Jupiter will be visible all night long, as he will not set in the west before the Sun rises in the east. The rise times for Jupiter in the southern hemisphere range between 1:20 a.m. on December 1st and 11:30 p.m. on the 31st.
The phases of the Moon represent the cyclical changing relationship between herself and the Sun. The two luminaries oppose each other on the 8th at 3:37 p.m. EST. This results in a Full Moon as the she is in position to be completely illuminated by the Sun’s light. The Moon, in her quicker trek through the zodiac, moves to perfect a waning square with the Sun on the 16th at 12:42 p.m. EST. This results in the Third Quarter Moon where her left side is lit by the Sun to the east of her. She continues east to catch the Sun, perfecting conjunction on the 23rd at 4:43 a.m. EST and producing a darkened New Moon. She then moves east faster than the Sun to reach the waxing square on the 30th at 5:03 a.m. EST resulting in the First Quarter Moon. Now the right half of her face is illuminated by the Sun to the west of her.
On the 7th the Moon reaches apogee at 7:04 a.m. EST. This is her furthest distance from Earth of 252,450 miles. The closest she comes to Earth this month is 222,661 miles. She reaches perigee at 6:50 a.m. on the 22nd.
Winter Solstice in the northern hemisphere occurs when the Sun reaches his highest south declination of 23*26 at the Tropic of Capricorn. This marks the Sun’s tropical ingress into Capricorn on the 22nd at 2:04 a.m. EST. In the north we experience the longest hours of night. In the southern hemisphere the longest day and the onset of summer is observed.
The Geminid Meteor Shower peaks on the evening of the 13th and into the night on the 14th. The peak time is around 11:00 p.m. EST on the 13th. You will be able to see some shooting stars coming from the constellation Gemini from the 6th through the 19th. This shower usually produces 60 – 120 meteors per hour at its peak. Typically the shower increases noticeably 3 days before the peak and drops off rather quickly. However, the late meteors tend to be brighter though there are less of them. While you can begin watching the shower around 7:00 p.m. when Gemini is above the eastern horizon, there will not be as many until around 10:00 p.m. when the constellation moves to a higher position. The most radiants are viewed when the constellation is overhead. Gemini is overhead between 1:00 and 3:00 a.m.
Maps of the night sky on the 16th around midnight are available in the OCA public library http://www.astrocollege.com/campus/libraries.cgi for both the northern and southern hemispheres. They will show the constellation Gemini overhead where the Geminid’s radiate from and where Saturn is positioned. Also they will show the Moon-Jupiter conjunction rising in the east.
Maps of the night sky on the 25th are also available in the OCA public library. They will show the Moon setting with Venus in the west and Mars overhead at 9:00 p.m. for the southern hemisphere and 7:00 p.m. for the northern hemisphere. Also Uranus’ position is located on this map. At times Uranus can be seen with the naked eye. Looking at Uranus’ magnitude at this time, I doubt this is one of them unless you are in a location practically devoid of light. However, if you have binoculars or a telescope you may want to try to find him. If you have a programmable telescope that finds the planets for you, the co-ordinates you will need to enter for Uranus are as follows: RA 22h 8.737m and Dec -13* 13.579.
Happy stargazing!
Julene M. Johnson, NCGR-III
Media Director, OCA
Instructor, OCA
ONLINE College of Astrology
www.astrocollege.com
FIRST in Online Astrological Education
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