Planet Scenes December 2021
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Planets: December 26 Our evening planet scene is gradually evolving as December closes; Venus is dropping in altitude significantly each evening, while Jupiter moves ever faster eastward against the stars (notice its position relative to the two end stars of Capricornus compared to a few months ago), and Saturn has managed to migrate to the middle of Capricornus by now too. Comet Leonard is still above our horizon low in the southwest. |
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Comet Leonard: December 20 We had pretty nice weather here in central Virginia for observing the evening planets and the comet. This would be about 0:00 UT December 21. I had a great view of the comet in my 20 x 80 binoculars; it was a very pleasant surprise! That motivated me to get the camera out and try a picture. The wide angle view was not intended to show the comet but once I inspected it, I noticed it in the lower left corner. |
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Comet Leonard: December 19 Despite missing the best weeks for Comet Leonard, I did manage to get a weak shot of the comet in the evening sky on one of the first clear evenings after a spot of bad weather ~ it's not much, but it's there LOL. The always eyecatching Terebellum asterism leads the way to finding the comet in this case. |
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December 19 Two different views of the striking planetary line this evening, one emphasizing the twilight colors and the other bringing out the background stars more. Venus has just driven back north in its arc to catch the ecliptic; from here on out it will be well north of it, making sunset views and (later on on January), early sunrise views easier than normal. |
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December 3 Ceres came to opposition on November 27, shining at magnitude 7.2 in Taurus, just to the upper right of the huge Hyades star cluster. Now, six days later, it continues to move slightly north of westward in its retrograde loop, and still shows up very nicely in this image. |
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December 3 No solar system bodies appear in this image that I'm aware of, but rather this is a mention of an asterism that I don't believe has been described before; the dipper of Cetus, just to the north and northeast of Diphda. It's similar in shape, but dimmer and larger, to the Milk Dipper of Sagittarius. |
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