Welcome to the University of Texas Skywatchers Report for Monday December 19, 2022, through Sunday January 1, 2023.
The moon will start these two weeks in the waning crescent phase in the early morning skies until we reach the final New Moon for 2022 on December 23rd. After that, we’ll have a waxing crescent moon in the western early evening skies until the moon is at first quarter on December 30th.
Venus continues to move away from the sun and is setting at 6:35 p.m. on December 19th and will start the new year setting at 7:00 p.m.
Mercury will be at greatest elongation on December 21st when it will be setting at 7:00 p.m., almost an hour and a half after sunset. This would be a good time to try to spot Mercury shortly after sunset if you have a good view of the western horizon. By January 1st, Mercury will be setting about 50 minutes after the sun.
Saturn is in the southwest at 7 p.m. and is setting at 9:35 p.m. on December 19th and at 8:50 p.m. on January 1st, so time is running out for evening viewing of the ringed planet. Look for Saturn to the right of the crescent moon on December 26th.
Jupiter is up in the south at 7:00 p.m. and is setting at 12:40 a.m. on the 19th and 11:50 p.m. as we start the new year. Jupiter and the moon will pair up on the nights of the 28th and 29th.
Mars is up in the east at sundown and is setting at 6:25 a.m. on December 19th and at 5:20 a.m. by the start of 2023. As our two planets continue to move away from one another, Mars will continue to decrease in brightness and size, although it will still be quite bright at magnitude -1.2 and 14.5 arcseconds in size to start 2023.
The winter solstice for the northern hemisphere occurs at 3:48 p.m. US Central Standard Time on December 21st and will be the day of the shortest amount of daylight for the year. For us here in Central Texas, we’ll see 10 hours and 11 minutes of daylight that day, compared to 14 hours and 6 minutes at the June solstice.
Public viewing on UT Campus telescopes has finished for the Fall 2022 semester. Spring 2023 semester viewing will start in mid-January. Please check back for details on starting dates and times.
Thank you for calling the University of Texas Skywatchers Report and Happy New Year!
