Skywatcher's Guide: December 2024 and January 2025

Skywatcher's Guide written by: Lucas Snyder (Flandrau Planetarium Specialist)

Navigation

• Stars and Constellations
• Solar System
• Calendar of Night Sky Events
• Deep Sky
• Frequently Asked Questions

Stars and Constellations

In December, the summer constellations are still visible for the first few hours of the night towards the west.  The Summer Triangle is still fairly high, with Vega heading to the west-northwest, Deneb closest to the zenith, and Altair in the west-southwest.  The center of the Milky Way is now below the horizon, but there is still a good portion of our galaxy we can see streaking high across the sky. The fall sky is now very prominent, getting high in the eastern sky.  The "W" of Cassiopeia is very high in the north-northeast. In the absence of the Big Dipper (part of our spring sky) Cassiopeia can be used to locate the north star: The top (open side) of the "W" faces to the north, so in that direction look for a star about the same brightness as the main stars in Casssiopeia, and that will most likely be Polaris.  Next, the Great Square of Pegasus is nearly in the middle of the sky.  Andromeda is nearby in the northeast, with Perseus just below.  There is also a fairly bright star called Fomalhaut in the south, though its constellation Piscis Austrinus is not easy to distinguish.  Finally, the winter sky is beginning to come up along the eastern horizon.  Taurus the bull is now up in the east with the bright star Aldebaran and the Pleiades (aka the seven sisters or Subaru) star cluster.  Auriga the charioteer is also up in the northeast, with the bright star Capella.

In January, the summer constellations are now very low in the west.  Deneb is the highest point of the Summer Triangle in the northwest, with Vega below near the horizon, and Altair more towards the west.  The Milky Way continues to streak across the sky, though the summer portion is now giving way to the winter portion.  The fall constellations are now right in the middle of the sky.  More of the winter constellations are now up, most notably Orion the hunter in the east below Taurus.  Gemini the twins are also up in the east-northeast just below Auriga.

Interesting Stars Visible in December and January (from 7 to 10 PM)

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Solar System

Mercury becomes visible in the morning sky in mid-December and remains visible until late January.

Venus is high in the west after sunset, barely changing in height over these two months.

Mars is visible before sunrise until mid-January and then after sunset for the rest of the month.  In the middle of the night, it will be high overhead.

Jupiter is low in the east after sunset at the beginning of December but gets gradually higher and more southerly each night.

Saturn is high in the south after sunset in December and moves more toward the west until the end of January.

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Jupiter Great Red Spot Transits in December and January (from 7 to 10 PM)

Note: The GRS is visible on the disk of Jupiter for 50 minutes before and after meridian transit time.

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Calendar of Night Sky Events

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Deep Sky

The summer Milky Way is now partially below the horizon at the beginning of the night, but the winter Milky Way is getting more and more prominent.  There are many open star clusters that can be seen with only binoculars scanning this part of the sky.  For example we have the asterism of the Coathanger between Aquila and Cygnus in the fainter constellation of Vulpecula.  The Pleiades (M45) is visible naked-eye in the east just above the face of Taurus which itself is another cluster called the Hyades.  We also have the Double Cluster in Perseus high in the north-northeast.  Finally, the constellation of Auriga in the northeast contains M36, M37, and M38 in close proximity.

There aren't as many globular clusters we can see this time of year, but there are still a few.  M15 is visible near the head of Pegasus in the west-southwest.  The next brightest one is M2 in Aquarius to the southwest.

For nebulae, we have several in the plane of the galaxy, one of which is the North America Nebula (C20) to the west-northwest in Cygnus.  The spectacular Orion Nebula (M42) is now just rising at the beginning of the night in the east. For planetary nebulae we have the Ring Nebula (M57) in Lyra, the Dumbell Nebula (M27) in Vulpecula, and the Blue Snowball (C22) in Andromeda.

And now the galaxies:  Our neighbor the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is now very high in the middle of the sky and is visible on dark nights with the naked eye.  Also nearby is the Triangulum Galaxy (M33), visible with binoculars.

Interesting Deep Sky Objects to Observe during December and January (from 7 to 10 PM)

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is happening in space in 2025?

There's always something to look for in the sky, but here are some of the highlights for the coming year.

First for our solar system, Mars will be at opposition (an every-other-year event) in January.  There is also a total lunar eclipse that we'll get to see in March.  Then there are three meteor showers that will have good viewing conditions:  the Quadrantids in January, the Delta Aquariids in July, and the Orionids in October.

For spacecraft launches, there are several missions scheduled to explore our solar system.  To the Moon we have Blue Ghost and RESILIENCE in January, Athena in February, Blue Moon in March, Griffin in September, and IM-3 in October, plus six other planned missions with dates TBD.  To other planets we have Venus Life Finder in January, and ESCAPADE (to Mars) with date TBD.  We also have a few small body missions: Odin in February, Tianwen-2 in May, and another unnamed mission with date TBD.  Finally, there are a few solar/heliophysics missions: PUNCH in February, IMAP in April, and SunRISE with date TBD.

Another event of note is the first light of the Rubin Observatory in Chile, which had its combined primary/tertiary mirror made at the UofA, scheduled for January.

Finally, we have some significant anniversaries happening in 2025:  the 25th anniversary of NEAR's orbit insertion at Eros (first asteroid orbiter) in February; the 100th anniversary of the opening of Zeiss Planetarium (first planetarium) in May; the 50th anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (first international crewed mission, considered the end of the Space Race) in July; the 50th anniversaries of Viking 1 and 2 (Mars orbiters/landers) launched in August and September, respectively; the 50th anniversary of Venera 9's arrival at Venus (first orbiter and first images returned from the surface) in October; the 25th anniversary of Soyuz TM-31 (First resident crew of the ISS, continuously crewed since) launched in October and docked in November; and the 50th anniversary of the opening of Flandrau in December!

If you have any questions you'd like me to answer in the next issue of SWG, please let me know.  I'm also happy to take suggestions or comments, and also pictures if you'd like to send them.  Happy viewing!

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Date of publication: 2024