{"id":2888,"date":"2021-12-01T08:24:03","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T08:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/?p=2888"},"modified":"2021-12-01T08:35:16","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T08:35:16","slug":"griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-december-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/2021\/12\/01\/griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-december-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Griffith Observatory Sky Report through December, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/strong><\/a>LISTEN to this week\u2019s Sky Report<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Dec2021_SR.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between December 1 and December 31, 2021. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California.<\/p>\n

Mercury<\/strong> spends most of December close to the sun and cannot be observed. By the 31st<\/sup>, the sun sets at 4:54 p.m., PST, and Mercury sets at 6:07 p.m., PST, an hour and thirteen minutes later. Do not observe any planet when it comes close to the sun, for the danger to the eyes is great.<\/p>\n

Venus<\/strong> is in the evening sky. The planet is low in the southwest. On the 1st<\/sup>, the sun sets at 4:44 p.m., PST, and Venus sets at 7:31 p.m., PST. On the 31st<\/sup>, the sun sets at 4:54 p.m., PST, and Venus sets at 5:59 p.m., PST. Venus will then be too close to the sun to be observed until the last week of January, when it appears in the morning sky. \u00a0As Venus slowly approaches the earth, its size is 39 arcseconds in the north-south direction on the 31st<\/sup>, but the crescent thins to one arcsecond.<\/p>\n

Mars<\/strong> slowly rises each day in the morning sky. On December 1st<\/sup>, Mars rises at 5:15 a.m., PST, and the sun rises at 6:41 a.m., PST, one hour and 26 minutes after Mars.\u00a0 On December 31, Mars rises at 4:58 a.m., PST, and the sun rises at 6:59 a.m., PST, over two hours after Mars. Mars appears as a disk only four arcseconds wide and will not show any surface features through a telescope.<\/p>\n

Jupiter<\/strong> is in the southwest evening sky. On the 1st<\/sup>, Jupiter sets at 10:23 p.m., PST, and on the 31st<\/sup> the planet sets at 8:50 p.m., PST. A telescope capable of magnification 50x will show the Red Spot, and the four bright Galilean moons may be seen moving back and forth, roughly in a line centered on Jupiter.<\/p>\n

Saturn<\/strong> is also visible in the evening sky towards the southwest, west of Jupiter. On the 1st<\/sup>, Saturn sets at 9:03 p.m., PST, and on the 31st<\/sup>, the planet sets at 7:19 p.m., PST. The rings and Saturn\u2019s largest moon Titan may be seen with a telescope capable of magnification 50x.<\/p>\n

Uranus<\/strong> is in the constellation of Aries the Ram. Uranus sets at 4:28 a.m., PST, on the 1st<\/sup>, and at 2:26 a.m., PST, on the 31st<\/sup>. On the 15th<\/sup> Uranus is at Right Ascension 2h<\/sup> 34m<\/sup> 47s<\/sup> with a declination of +14\u00b0 43\u02b9 47\u02ba. Uranus is only 3.7 arcseconds wide, and so a telescope with a magnification of 150x is needed to show its diminutive disk.<\/p>\n

Neptune<\/strong> is in the constellation Aquarius the Water Bearer. On the 1st<\/sup>, Neptune sets at 12:22 a.m., PST, and on the 31st<\/sup>, Neptune sets at 10:25 p.m., PST. On the 15th<\/sup> Neptune is at Right Ascension 23h<\/sup> 25m<\/sup> 38s<\/sup> with a declination of -4\u00b0 56\u02b9 51\u02ba. Neptune is only 2.3 arcseconds wide, and so a telescope with a magnification of 150x is needed to show the disk.<\/p>\n

New moon occurs on the 3rd<\/sup>, first quarter on the 10th<\/sup>, full moon on the 18th<\/sup>, and last quarter on the 26th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

SPECIAL EVENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

The winter solstice<\/strong> occurs on December 21 at 7:59 a.m., PST, as the sun reaches its southernmost point on the ecliptic, reverses its movement, and heads north.\u00a0 This marks the longest night and the shortest day of the year. The day is 9 hours 53 minutes long.<\/p>\n

The Geminid meteor shower<\/strong> peaks from the night of Tuesday, December 13, through the morning of Wednesday, December 14. The Geminids usually produce around 20 to 40 slow-moving meteors per hour with many bright ones. Under dark sky conditions, 150 meteors per hour are expected, but rates will be decreased by bright moonlight until 2:45 a.m., when the waxing gibbous moon sets.<\/p>\n

Comet Leonard C\/2021 A1<\/strong> might be visible through binoculars or even with the unaided eye. On the 12th<\/sup>, Leonard will be closest to the earth at a distance of 21,690,000 miles. By the 31st<\/sup>, the comet is low in the south-southwest and sets at 6:53 p.m., PST, and the sun sets at 4:54 p.m., PST. Leonard\u2019s predicted celestial coordinates are listed in the table below. Azimuth and elevation are at sunset. An azimuth of 270\u00b0 is directly west.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Date<\/td>\nR.A.<\/td>\nDec<\/td>\nAzimuth<\/td>\nElevation<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11<\/td>\n16h<\/sup> 51m<\/sup><\/td>\n+1\u00b0 20\u02b9<\/td>\n266\u00b0 WSW<\/td>\n7\u00b0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
14<\/td>\n18h<\/sup> 26m<\/sup><\/td>\n-15\u00b0 10\u02b9<\/td>\n240\u00b0 SW<\/td>\n13\u00b0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
20\u00a0<\/sup><\/td>\n20h<\/sup> 28m<\/sup><\/td>\n-30\u00b0 25\u02b9<\/td>\n212\u00b0 SW<\/td>\n17\u00b0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
25\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup><\/td>\n21h<\/sup> 12m<\/sup><\/td>\n-33\u00b0 52\u02b9<\/td>\n206\u00b0 SSW<\/td>\n16\u00b0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
31<\/td>\n21h<\/sup> 34m<\/sup><\/td>\n-35\u00b0 26\u02b9<\/td>\n206\u00b0 SSW<\/td>\n15\u00b0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Follow\u00a0All Space Considered<\/a> and\u00a0Griffith Observatory<\/a> on Twitter for updates on astronomy and space-related events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LISTEN to this week\u2019s Sky Report https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Dec2021_SR.mp3 This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between December 1 and December 31, 2021. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California. Mercury spends most of December … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-skyreport"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2888"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2892,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2888\/revisions\/2892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}