2023: Last Call

2023 ends with two planets in the early evening and one in the pre-dawn sky. Saturn is in the southwest at dusk now. It sets around 9:30 p.m. Jupiter shines brightly high overhead when the sun goes down. It remains in the sky until 2:30 a.m.

The Moon is a waning gibbous and rises after 7 p.m. this week. It shrinks through last quarter phase and rises just before midnight by January 3.

The great winter constellation of Orion the Hunter is in the east by 8 p.m. now. The distinctive three star line that forms Orion’s belt stands as a vertical line. Follow the line down toward the horizon to see Sirius, the brightest star in the sky.

Follow Orion’s belt stars up to almost overhead. Find the “V” shape of the head of Taurus the Bull and the bright orange star Aldebaran. This shape is the Hyades asterism. It covers too large an area to see with a telescope, so explore the region with binoculars.

Move up from the Hyades to the small cluster of stars that resembles a small dipper. This is the famous Pleiades or Seven Sisters cluster in Taurus. Again, explore this large open cluster with binoculars.

People often confuse the Pleiades with the Little Dipper. The Little Dipper is much larger. This time of year, the Little Dipper is hanging down from the North Star Polaris. Check out the sky if you are outside celebrating on December 31!

Finally, let us look back on 2023. The sky was very cooperative in the latter half of the year. Clear evenings allowed our club members to explore the new Unistellar telescope systems to capture some amazing sky photos.

The Catawba Valley Astronomy Club and the Lucile Miller

Observatory had our best year since before covid. We served over 3064 visitors on over 103 occasions. Many of these were offsite visits in the community. Thank you for supporting our public outreach!

Next week we will look at the sky events and observing opportunities for 2024. Have a safe and Happy New Year!

Visit www.catawbasky.org for more information.