We generally save our stargazing suggestions for the summer, when it’s warmer in the northern hemisphere. But you’re tough, you can handle a little cold. And it’s worth it because there are some wonderful things you can see in the night sky this time of year.

Show Notes

Mars Mesmerizes at Opposition (Sky & Telescope)

The Mars Rovers (NASA)

Mission Juno (SwRI)

JunoCam : Processing (SwRI)

Rosalind Franklin: Europe’s delayed Mars rover to receive rescue package (BBC News)

Europe’s first Mars rover mission saved by major investment (Nature)

Mars-Moon Occultation 2022 Archives (Sky & Telescope)

Moon and Mars! Fav photos of December 7 (EarthSky)

Geminid meteor shower 2022 (In-the-sky.org)

Heavens-Above

International Space Station (NASA)

Starlink

Bolide (Swinburne University)

What Is an Aurora? (NASA)

Solar Cycle 25 Is Here. NASA, NOAA Scientists Explain What That Means (NASA)

Solar Cycle Progression (NOAA / NWS)

Sunspots and Solar Flares (NASA)

Citizen Scientists Help Discover A New Feature of STEVE (NASA)

SpaceWeather.com

Orion the Hunter, the world’s most recognizable constellation (EarthSky)

The Orion Nebula is a starry nursery (EarthSky)

Star Formation (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian)

Andromeda galaxy: All you need to know (EarthSky)

Double Cluster in Perseus on October evenings (EarthSky)

Triangulum galaxy, the 2nd-closest spiral galaxy (EarthSky)

Pleiades: The Seven Sisters Star Cluster (NASA)

Hyades star cluster: face of the Bull (EarthSky)

Betelgeuse is Dimming . . . Why? (Sky & Telescope)

Image of Betelgeuse’s surface taken in March 2020 (ESA)

See all 5 bright planets in December 2022 (EarthSky)

Stargazing with Early Astronomer Galileo Galilei (Sky & Telescope)

Comet 2022 E3 now in morning skies, brightening (EarthSky)

Comet C/2022 L2 (ATLAS) (TheSkyLive)

Transcript

Transcriptions provided by GMR Transcription Services

Fraser: AstronomyCast Episode 663, “The End-of-the-Year Events.” Welcome to AstronomyCast, your weekly facts-based journey through the cosmos, where we help you understand not only what we know, but how we know what we know. I’m Fraser Cain, publisher of Universe Today. With me, as always, is Dr. Pamela Gay, a senior scientist for the Planetary Science Institute and the director of CosmoQuest. Hey, Pamela, how are you doing?

Dr. Gay: I am doing well, how are you?

Fraser: Good, good. I could whine about weather, but I won’t.

Dr. Gay: Are you going to have a white Christmas?

Fraser: Probably, yeah. We’re gonna have a white December, just all the way through. Last year was bonkers. This year is shaping up to be just this side of weird, but now, I just feel like every year, the weather is just weird. That’s just the new normal.

Dr. Gay: I saw blue jays.

Fraser: You saw blue jays?

Dr. Gay: I saw blue jays. Blue jays mean winter, robins mean summer, so it’s going to be a cold one when the blue jays are here.

Fraser: Right. Now, we generally save our stargazing selections for the summer, when it’s warmer in the Northern Hemisphere, but you’re tough, you can handle a little cold, and it’s worth it because there are some wonderful things you can see in the night sky this time of year. Have we ever done this? I was sort of thinking about this. I was writing my introduction, I’m like, yeah, every year, every couple of years, our last episode before we go on hiatus, we give you a bunch of recommendations to see over the summer, and we drag out all the common things, but we don’t do one this time of year, and that’s crazy because –

Dr. Gay: Yes!

Fraser: – there’s a ton of really interesting things, especially this year –

Dr. Gay: Yes.

Fraser: – that we should highlight, and so, you know what? I think our listeners are tough. They can handle it. They can handle some cold outside weather when they just take some extra hot chocolate and just warm with layers –

Dr. Gay: Or extreme heat, if they’re in Australia.

Fraser: Right, exactly. Are we avoiding the extreme heat? It’s milder, cooler, and nicer in July in Australia as well. So, what interesting event is coming up – let’s talk about some transitory events, some things that are brand-new and fresh, and then maybe we can shift over to some stuff that you can expect to see every year around this time. So, what is interesting that’s gonna be happening this winter?

Dr. Gay: Well, right now, we have Mars at opposition, which means that Mars is rising a little bit after sunset, the nights are quite long, so Mars is rising a little bit after sunset, it’s setting a little bit before sunrise, and it’s pretty much at its highest point in the sky at the middle of the night, which, time zone dependent, may or may not be midnight where you are, but this means that that giant red dot in the sky could be Antares, could be Betelgeuse, or could be Mars.

Fraser: If you go outside right now and you live in very light-polluted skies, you will probably see two stars, Jupiter and Mars, right? Neither of them are stars, but they are the two brightest objects in the sky right now, after the Moon, and it’s a good way to know if you can see clear sky and you can see these two objects – yeah, you’re looking at Jupiter and Mars. It’s amazing.

Dr. Gay: Yes. And, it’s fun to be able to say to people, “Hey, did you know there’s a world entirely occupied by a troop of robots,” make it sound as spectacular as possible, “The Cylons have arrived,” and it’s just Mars, and you can then continue the story, pointing out at Jupiter and saying, “Hey, there’s this little mission called Juno going around Jupiter, and they post all their information online, so when we go in to warm up, we can download some data and make beautiful images using a camera that NASA purchased.”

Fraser: So, why is Mars opposition so important? What does it mean?

Dr. Gay: Mars opposition means that it is a reasonably good time to launch a spacecraft, and it also means that it’s easy to monitor it. So, if you want to do something where you want quick turnaround time between you and your favorite robot, you aim to have that thi...