Highlights

Your guide to the night sky this month

MONDAY 1

Mercury reaches greatest western elongation, appearing to be 22.7º from the Sun in the morning sky. See page 56.

SUNDAY 7

The planets Jupiter and Mars appear just 13 arcminutes apart in the morning sky.

TUESDAY 2

Tonight’s moon is the perigee full Moon of 2018 – the largest and brightest of the year, but only by a small amount! See page 52.

Asteroid Flora reaches opposition today. See page 59.

MONDAY 8

As the Moon is moving into the morning sky, this is a great time to start looking for the objects listed in this month’s Deep-Sky Tour on page 62. This time we’re looking at some interesting clusters and nebulae close to the eastern end of Orion’s Belt.

SUNDAY 14

The Orion Nebula, M42, is due south at 22:00 UT. There’s no interference from the Moon, so this is a great time to get any new Christmas kit out and observe this amazingly rich deep-sky object. If you’ve never tried it before, why not have a go at photographing it too?

See page 32 for more on imaging Orion and M42

MONDAY 15

Saturn and Mercury form a right-angled triangle with this morning’s 2%-lit waning crescent Moon. View around 07:30 UT.

FRIDAY 26

There’s an opportunity to spot the lunar ‘Jewelled Handle’ this evening as the tops of the Jura mountains (which border the Sinus Iridum, or Bay of Rainbows) catch their first light after lunar dawn. See page 58. WEDNESDAY

31

The second full Moon of the month. Such an event has become known as a Blue Moon. See page 52 to find out more.

WEDNESDAY 3

It may not feel like it in wintry Britain, but the Earth is at the closest point in its orbit to the Sun – a point known as its perihelion.

The Quadrantid meteor shower reaches its peak under unfavourable Moon conditions.

WEDNESDAY 10

With no Moon in the early evening sky, this is a good time to pop outside with young astronomers and see whether you can get them to pick out the Celestial G, a giant pattern that runs through some of sky’s brightest stars.

WEDNESDAY 17

A telescopic view of Jupiter this morning will show its outer Galilean moon, Callisto, passing close to Jupiter’s northern limb.