APOD: Highlights of the North Winter Sky (2018 Dec 05)

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APOD: Highlights of the North Winter Sky (2018 Dec 05)

Post by APOD Robot » Wed Dec 05, 2018 5:09 am

Image Highlights of the North Winter Sky

Explanation: What can you see in the night sky this season? The featured graphic gives a few highlights for Earth's northern hemisphere. Viewed as a clock face centered at the bottom, early (northern) winter sky events fan out toward the left, while late winter events are projected toward the right. Objects relatively close to Earth are illustrated, in general, as nearer to the cartoon figure with the telescope at the bottom center -- although almost everything pictured can be seen without a telescope. As happens during any season, constellations appear the same year to year, and, as usual, the Geminids meteor shower will peak in mid-December. Also as usual, the International Space Station (ISS) can be seen, at times, as a bright spot drifting across the sky after sunset. Less usual, the Moon is expected to pass nearly in front of several planets in early January. A treat this winter is Comet 46P/Wirtanen, already bright, will pass only 36 lunar distances from the Earth in mid-December, potentially making it easily visible to the unaided eye.

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eyesoars

Re: APOD: Highlights of the North Winter Sky (2018 Dec 05)

Post by eyesoars » Wed Dec 05, 2018 5:54 am

'aline'? Maybe 'align'?

aussie phil

Re: APOD: Highlights of the North Winter Sky (2018 Dec 05)

Post by aussie phil » Wed Dec 05, 2018 6:28 am

Is there any chance of a link to the southern sky or an acknowlegement that there is a world below the equator? Thanks Aussie Phil

gheyer98

Re: APOD: Highlights of the North Winter Sky (2018 Dec 05)

Post by gheyer98 » Wed Dec 05, 2018 2:13 pm

Just curious where this chart was originally created. It's not just aline, one of the descriptions is entirely in Spanish. (I think.) Although Google says that align in Spanish is alinee, not aline, so that's puzzling, too.

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Re: APOD: Highlights of the North Winter Sky (2018 Dec 05)

Post by NateWhilk » Wed Dec 05, 2018 4:40 pm

gheyer98 wrote: Wed Dec 05, 2018 2:13 pm Just curious where this chart was originally created. It's not just aline, one of the descriptions is entirely in Spanish. (I think.) Although Google says that align in Spanish is alinee, not aline, so that's puzzling, too.
Yeah, the note for Feb. 10 is odd. That's the closest approach of Moon and Mars for that month. "Marte" is the Spanish name of "Mars", of course. I searched for "martemoon", but it only shows up in things like user ids and image names, such as martemoon.jpg. There are a few occurrences of "marte moon" but they don't seem to have any special significance.

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Re: APOD: Highlights of the North Winter Sky (2018 Dec 05)

Post by Fred the Cat » Wed Dec 05, 2018 4:57 pm

aussie phil wrote: Wed Dec 05, 2018 6:28 am Is there any chance of a link to the southern sky or an acknowlegement that there is a world below the equator? Thanks Aussie Phil
Yes, but you may have to pay for it. I'd like to step outside :brr: and see it too. 8-)

At least we'll both be able to see the comet. :thumb_up:
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Re: APOD: Highlights of the North Winter Sky (2018 Dec 05)

Post by Chris Peterson » Wed Dec 05, 2018 5:17 pm

Fred the Cat wrote: Wed Dec 05, 2018 4:57 pm At least we'll both be able to see the comet. :thumb_up:
You can see it now. I stepped outside last night with a pair of binoculars and it jumps out, a massive fuzzy blob that fills a large part of the binocular field. That thing is huge and it's bright. Once I picked it out with the binoculars, I had no problem seeing it with averted vision (but I have very dark skies here).
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Re: APOD: Highlights of the North Winter Sky (2018 Dec 05)

Post by Chris Peterson » Wed Dec 05, 2018 5:26 pm

NateWhilk wrote: Wed Dec 05, 2018 4:40 pm
gheyer98 wrote: Wed Dec 05, 2018 2:13 pm Just curious where this chart was originally created. It's not just aline, one of the descriptions is entirely in Spanish. (I think.) Although Google says that align in Spanish is alinee, not aline, so that's puzzling, too.
Yeah, the note for Feb. 10 is odd. That's the closest approach of Moon and Mars for that month. "Marte" is the Spanish name of "Mars", of course. I searched for "martemoon", but it only shows up in things like user ids and image names, such as martemoon.jpg. There are a few occurrences of "marte moon" but they don't seem to have any special significance.
It's just the Spanish, Conjunción de la luna y Marte, and its English translation, Moon near Mars, with a missing space between the two. A copy-and-paste error in preparing the English version, I imagine.

The same graphic is available in five different languages at the universe2go.com website.
_
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Re: APOD: Highlights of the North Winter Sky (2018 Dec 05)

Post by neufer » Wed Dec 05, 2018 6:10 pm


Chris Peterson wrote: Wed Dec 05, 2018 5:17 pm
Fred the Cat wrote: Wed Dec 05, 2018 4:57 pm
At least we'll both be able to see the comet. :thumb_up:
You can see it now. I stepped outside last night with a pair of binoculars and it jumps out, a massive fuzzy blob that fills a large part of the binocular field. That thing is huge and it's bright. Once I picked it out with the binoculars, I had no problem seeing it with averted vision (but I have very dark skies here).
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Re: APOD: Highlights of the North Winter Sky (2018 Dec 05)

Post by Fred the Cat » Thu Dec 06, 2018 7:36 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: Wed Dec 05, 2018 5:17 pm
Fred the Cat wrote: Wed Dec 05, 2018 4:57 pm At least we'll both be able to see the comet. :thumb_up:
You can see it now. I stepped outside last night with a pair of binoculars and it jumps out, a massive fuzzy blob that fills a large part of the binocular field. That thing is huge and it's bright. Once I picked it out with the binoculars, I had no problem seeing it with averted vision (but I have very dark skies here).
I went out last night to look but too much haze or light pollution. Maybe that will improve Jan 21st? The comet should be close to Capella . Could that make for an interesting photo-op should conditions and locations coincide :?:
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