by Erich Karkoschka

	Saturn is still visible at dusk very low in the southwest until Dec 15.
	Mars at magnitude 0 transits at 6pm and sets at midnight. It is moving fast through Aquarius.
	Neptune is easy to find on Dec 7 when it is only 15 arc-minutes from Mars.
	Uranus transits at 9pm 68 degrees high in Pisces.
	Venus is magnitude -4.9, the brightest possible, high during dawn.
	Mercury is visible well below Venus from Dec 4 to Jan 4.
	Jupiter joins Mercury starting Dec 9 first below Mercury. On Dec 21, the pair is only 1 degree apart. Afterwards, Jupiter will be higher than Mercury by 1 degree per day.
	The moon will be first visible on Dec 8 as a very thin crescent next to Saturn. On Dec 14 it shines below Mars.
	The Geminids meteors will be very active on Dec 13 an 14.
	Winter solstice occurs on Dec 21. The length of the day stays near 10 hours all month, but sunrise and sunset both get delayed by about a quarter of an hour during December.

Want to have a fun astronomy night in downtown Tucson? Hear interesting talks focused on Astronomy? Tucson is participating in a national astronomy program called “Astronomy on Tap” or “Space Drafts”. This program is sponsored by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) and UA Lunar & Planetary Lap (LPL). The Astronomy on Tap Space Drafts website is: https://astronomyontap.org/locations/tucson-az/.

The next Space Drafts will be Wednesday November 14, 2018 at 7 PM with the talks starting at 7:30. The event is held at Borderlands Brewing Company, 119 E Toole Ave, Tucson, AZ. The two scheduled talks are:

“Amateur Astronomy in Tucson” by Jim Knoll, Star Party Coordinator for the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association.

“The first galaxies: coming soon to a space telescope near you” by postdoc Dr. Christina Williams, Steward Observatory.

Monthly Archives: November 2018

Planets of the Month: December 2018

Astronomy on Tap / Space Drafts