On the winter solstice (sol = sun + sistere = stand still), December 21 this year, the sun seems to stand still at its lowest position in our sky, rising in the southeast and setting in the southwest. On a recent hazy day, through the filter of a hemlock forest, I was amazed by the shallow arc the sun was tracing close above the horizon. See the sun’s path widen and heighten in the sky as days lengthen, shown in the solargraph, above.
The shortest days, longest nights of the year continue from this first day of winter in the northern hemisphere. Only seconds are gained until the end of December. Morning stargazing invites the curious, with true darkness until about 5:40 a.m., twilight 6:50 a.m. Sunrise today, the 21st, 7:19 a.m., sunset 4:24 p.m., nightfall 6:03 p.m.: close to 15 hours of darkness, nine hours and five minutes of daylight.
This schema of the evening sky, viewed from east-northeast to west, is a useful guide for locating four of our solar system’s closest planets—all visible with naked eyes, unaided by magnification—during the two-week span of this edition of “Eyes to the Sky,” December 21, 2024, through January 3, 2025. Introduced in this diagram, a particularly opportune moment to find all four planets in the sky. Mars has risen into good view above the horizon to the east, and Venus, with a waxing crescent moon, is to be enjoyed before setting in the west.
Also on January 3, 2025, beginning at 7:40 p.m., Orion the Hunter’s companion stars, Sirius the Dog Star (-1.46 magnitude), the brightest star in Earth’s skies, with yellowish Procyon (0.34m) to the left of Sirius, are arriving for an all-night winter run. A young crescent moon appears with planet Venus shortly before they set during the first days of the new year. The moon joins Saturn on January 4.
Planet Jupiter (-2.77m) rises in the east-northeast at 3:13 p.m. on the 21st and sets at 6:09 a.m. on the 22nd. Venus (-4.28m) rises at 10:13 a.m. and sets at 8:05 p.m. on the 21st. On January 3, Venus rises at 9:54 a.m. and sets at 8:29 p.m.
What is the red band in the diagram above and that follows? A representation of the Milky Way?
An earlier date, December 21, and later time of night, 9:37 p.m., appear at the top of this map that includes prominent constellations for readers to find on a clear night. Planet Mars seems to line up with Procyon and Sirius rather low to the horizon. Jupiter is high in the sky, near Taurus the Bull’s eye star, red Aldebaran. Saturn is off the map, low in the west-southwest, poised to set. Just as Winter arrives, Leo the Lion, the harbinger of spring, begins to enter the night sky on the eastern horizon. The North Star is included in this map in response to a chance meeting with a neighbor out for a run while I was stargazing. I introduced her to Venus and Jupiter. She asked, “Where’s the North Star.”
Here’s how to locate it: Find the Big Dipper. Note the distance between Dubhe and Merak at the edge of the bowl. Extend the imagined line between them about five lengths to reach the North Star, also known as Polaris, at the tip of the Little Dipper’s handle.
