Hampshire Astronomical Group

Astronomical Events for December 2023

Moon

Third Quarter 5th December

New Moon 12th December

First Quarter 19th December

Full Moon 27th December

8 December – 06:30 UT – the Moon will be just above Spica.  Look for them in the south-eastern horizon.

9 December – 06:30 UT – the Moon will be less than 5° from Venus.

9 December – Lunar libration makes it a good opportunity to view Mare Orientale.

17 December – 19:30 UT – The Moon will be 4.3° below Saturn (mag. +0.8).

22 December – early evening – The Moon will be 3° from Jupiter, look for them as the sky darkens.

23 December – 17:30 UT – the Moon will be close to Uranus; the planet will be just below and to the right of the Moon.

24 December – early morning – the Moon can be seen 3.1° from the centre of the Pleiades open cluster.

Transits of Jupiter’s Moons

2 December – 03:08 UT-04:56 UT – Transit of Ganymede.

15 December – 14:03 UT-15:58 UT – Transit of Ganymede’s shadow.

15 December – 16:47 UT-19:11 UT – Europa will transit Jupiter.

23 December – 18:04 UT-20:00 UT – Ganymede’s shadow transits Jupiter.  At 19:22 UT Europa’s shadow will also start its transit.

30 December – 17:13 UT-19:17 UT – Transit of Ganymede.

30 December – 19:38 UT-22:01 UT – Transit of Europa.

Occultations

7/8 December – 21:00 UT-00:51 UT – Jupiter occults GSC634-593, a mag. +11.6 star.

12 December – 20:03 UT-21:41 UT – Occultation of Ganymede by Jupiter.

19/20 December – 23:34 UT-01:17 UT – Another occultation of Ganymede by Jupiter.

Meteor Showers

14 December – The peak of the Geminid meteor shower (ZHR 60-70 meteors an hour) occurs at 19:00 UT today.  The best time for viewing is 13/14 and 14/15 December in an area with little light pollution, and there won’t be any moonlight to spoil the view.

22/23 December – Peak of the Ursids meteor shower (ZHR 10 meteors an hour), however the light from the Moon will drown out the fainter meteors.

Comets

27/28 December – Comet 62P/Tsuchinshan (mag. +7.2) can be seen passing through the Leo Triplet.

Binocular Objects

The Hyades – the nearest open cluster to us at 153 lightyears.

NGC 1647 – a small cluster 3° northeast of the reddish eye of the bull, Aldebaran (Alpha (α) Tauri). 10x50 binoculars will show about 8 or 9 stars.

NGC 1662 – This appears as a winding string of stars and can be found 6.25° from Aldebaran in the direction of Rigel (Beta (β) Orionis).  15x70 binoculars are required to see this object.

Collinder 70 – an oval-shaped group of bluish-white stars which surround Orion’s Belt.  70 stars form curved chains which can be seen on a clear night.

M42 The Great Nebula in Orion – nearest stellar nursery to Earth.  Best time to observe is after the dust in the atmosphere has been cleared by rain.

Deep Sky Objects

NGC 864 – a spiral galaxy located 5.1° west and 0.3° north of Nu (ν) Ceti.  Dark skies are required to see this object as its surface glow is low, and light-polluted skies will hide it.  A 250mm scope will show the galaxy as a faint glow.

NGC 936 – a barred lenticular galaxy which can be found 7.7° east-southeast of NGC 864.  A 150mm scope will show a 1.5-arcminute object with a bright inner core.  Scopes 250m and larger will show the core as three patches.  It has been nicknamed the Darth Vader’s Galaxy due to the two glowing blobs either side of the galaxy’s centre.

NGC 1055 – an edge-on galaxy.  To find it, head 4.9° east-northeast to a point 0.6° east and fractionally north of Delta (δ) Ceti.  Then find two stars, HIP 12555 and HIP 17598.  NGC 1055 will form the southern apex of a south-pointing equilateral triangle.  A small scope will show a classic needle shape 4 x 1 arcminutes, and orientated east-west.  250mm scopes will show clumpiness in and around the core.

M77 – a barred spiral galaxy located less than half a degree south-southeast of NGC 1055 and 0.9° east-southeast of Delta Ceti.  It has a bright surface area which smaller scopes can easily pick up.  The core is surrounded by a faint halo 1.5 x 1.0 arcminutes across.

NGC 1087 – this galaxy can be found 1° southeast of M77.  It is an intermediate spiral galaxy with sufficient surface brightness to be seen with a small telescope.

NGC 2264 The Christmas Tree Cluster – this star cluster can be found in Monoceros and looks like an upside-down Christmas Tree.  To find it, draw a line between the stars Procyon and Betelgeuse, and the cluster will be slightly north of the midway point between the two stars.  A small telescope will show about 12 stars, including 15 Monocerotis, a hot, blue main sequence dwarf which marks the pot of the Christmas tree.  A dark site may reveal some haze.

Miscellaneous

21 December – Vesta is at opposition and can be found in northern Orion.  10x50 binoculars may show the mag. +6.4 planet.

22 December – 03:28 UT – Northern Hemisphere’s winter solstice.

Moon Image Credit: ??????
M46/NGC2437 Image Credit: ???????

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