Welcome to this issue of Qué tal. Here you will find useful observing information
about the visible planets, our Moon and other
moons, the Sun, as well as various 'things' celestial.
Among
these web pages you will find monthly star maps for either the northern
or southern hemisphere that are suitable for printout. Animated
images are utilized to illustrate celestial motions such as orbital
motions of the planets, and other solar orbiting objects or apparent
and real motions along the ecliptic and the local horizon. Regular
features include plotting the monthly positions of the visible planets
using heliocentric coordinates; following moon phases; conjunctions; the sun's
apparent motion and the Earth's real motion along the ecliptic.
This month the planet viewing in the evening at sunset includes Venus over the western horizon and Jupiter over the eastern horizon.
Venus sets an hour or so after the Sun while Jupiter, just a couple of months past opposition is visible all night.
In the morning before sunrise look for saturn well above the southeastern horizon with Spica, a blue-white star in Virgo near it.
Mercury rises around sunrise early in the month but quickly rises ahead of the sun as we move through the month, becoming more easily
to be seen.
There will be a total lunar eclipse on 10 December. Depending on your time zone you may not see the entire event.
From Lee's summit MO in the central Time Zone the full Moon is just entering the dark umbral shadow as the Moon is setting and the Sun is rising.
The further west you are the more of the eclipse you will be able to see. The link on the calendar page displays a NASA prepared map showing the
eclipse stage times. Match these with your local time for sunrise/moonset to determine how much or how little you will be able to see.
This picture is from a lunar eclipse on 26 June 2010. The Moon is about 1/4 of the way into the umbra as it was setting.
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