During December, Venus will be brilliant in the early morning eastern sky. Predawn (about 4 am) on the 13th will find the waning crescent Moon and Venus separated by less than 2 degrees, or about four Moon diameters, low in the east.
Jupiter and Saturn will be remarkably close in the western sky during December twilights. On the 17th, the three-day old crescent Moon will draw within 3° of them, to make a striking trio. Keep watching the two planets, because on the 21st, they will only be 0.1° apart. (Wish for clear skies, because this proximity is only seen once every two decades or so.) The best viewing time is about 8pm- which, on the 21st, also happens to be the time of our Summer Solstice.
Mars is now moving away from the Earth, and its size will diminish by more than half over December. However, it will still stand out in constellation Pisces in the northern sky, in the early night.
Also featuring in the December northern sky are the Geminids, a recurring shower of meteors. (These showers happen when the Earth’s orbit crosses a comet’s orbit, and the debris from the comet’s tail falls into the atmosphere.) As the name implies, the Geminids seem to fall from the constellation of Gemini, near the bright stars Castor and Pollux. The number of meteors that can be seen falling every hour varies, but for the Geminids can reach 150- which is as high as it gets for any regular meteor shower. Optimum viewing will be after midnight between the 4th and 17th, with peak activity predicted for the 14th.
Lower in the northern night sky is Arcturus, fourth brightest of the stars. Arcturus means ‘Guardian of the Bear’, protector of Ursa Major, the Great Bear of the deep northern sky.
A more local protector story comes from the Wergaia people of Western Victoria. Marpeankurrk was a woman of this tribe during a time of great drought. She set out to find food for her starving people, but walked for hours, finding nothing. Seeing the mound of a nest of wood ants, she dug into it with her stick, exposing the larvae. In desperation, she tasted one. It was good! She loaded up all she could carry, and was able to save her people. Wood ant larvae became one of their favourite foods, and an essential food source in late winter.
When Marpeankurrk died, she became the star we call Arcturus. Now, in late winter, when Marpeankurrk appears in the northern evening sky, the people begin to collect the wood ant larvae. But later on, when Marpeankurrk sets just after sunset, it is a sign that the larvae are gone, and summer is beginning.
By Vlack
The Coburg Meddler 