[ETL]

If this isn’t enough, about halfway across the sky from Jupiter and Saturn toward the east is the planet Mars. Whereas Jupiter and Saturn appears as bright white stars, Jupiter by far being the brighter, Mars appears a yellowish orange. This is due to it’s rusty iron-bearing surface geology.

As for distances away from earth at this time, Mars is currently about 65 million miles from earth, Jupiter 536 million, and Saturn 990 million.

In addition to the planets, depending on your location, there will be at least one visible pass of the International Space Station (ISS) tonight and in the days to come.

ISS appears as a bright white ‘star-like’ object moving slowly across the sky at about the apparent rate of a high-flying airplane. Unlike airplanes, there are no colored or blinking with ISS, as all of its light is reflected sunlight.

For info on ISS sightings from your specific location, go to the following website and provide your general location. Then, from the HA home page, look for “Satellites”. Under that you will find “ISS” (it doesn’t say “International Space Station”)

For an excellent sky map (on the same website), look for “Sky chart (old version)”. You can adjust it for any date or time you wish by changing the settings beneath the map. I prefer viewing the map with a white background, as opposed to the default dark blue background.

heavens-above.com
https://www.heavens-above.com/

[ETL]

Sorry for the large images.

I wasn't able to resize them via the image url as in other cases, and I no longer have an image hosting account with any such website. Need to find a new and reliable one.

Below, Dec 16th, crescent moon enters the picture...

[ETL]

Astronomy ping.

[zadox]

Thanks for the post. I've been watching them almost every night. It is going to be a fantastic conjunction!

I resized the images a bit below ...

[V_TWIN]

In before the Uranus jokes 😂

[proud2beconservativeinNJ]

Thank you. ....heading to a field with my hubby to do some star gazing. Space station is due here at 6:34.

[Inyo-Mono]

Bookmark.

[Uncle Miltie]

In what month does the full moon rise from the most southerly point on the horizon?

I have a certain picture to catch when it does.

If you know, please tell me.