“Venus Becomes Queen of December's Skies, and; Catch Mars as it Speeds Away”

Scheduled air date: 2005 Nov 28-Dec 04

The brilliant planet Venus—currently making its appearance as the Evening Star—is joined by the Waxing Crescent Moon on the evening of December 4th.
A few days later on December 7th, the First Quarter Moon appears a few degrees from the gas-giant planet Uranus, which can be seen with a pair of binoculars.
(Shown on December 3-7 around 6:00 PM for mid-Northern latitudes.)

In the eastern sky after sunset, the red planet Mars—now rapidly moving away from us after its late-October close encounter with Earth—is still quite bright, though growing slightly dimmer each night.
(Shown around 6:00 PM this week for mid-Northern latitudes.)

Next week, a conjunction—or near-alignment—occurs between the Waxing Gibbous Moon and the planet Mars. For viewers in North America, the more northern and western your location, the closer and earlier the Moon and Mars will approach each other. See the table below for more information on this conjunction.
(Shown about 8:00 PM on December 11 for mid-northern latitudes. Inset shows closest approach as seen from central United States.)

Table 1. Minimum Angular Separation between the Moon and Mars for Select U.S. Cities

If you wish to view illustrations for other episodes, please see our Star Gazer Illustrated directory.

Illustrations on this page were created using TheSky6 Astronomy Software, an advanced desktop planetarium program designed for Windows 98, NT, 2000, Me and XP. Copyright © 1999-2005 by Software Bisque, Inc.