This month gives skygazers an excellent opportunity to view all planets visible to the naked eye. Five other planets, obviously besides Earth, namely Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, will be visible as well, although only Jupiter, Venus and Saturn are visible all month long.

Mars appears briefly after sunset, while Mercury is currently visible in the morning sky during these first weeks of December, together with Venus and Saturn, which form a diagonal line in the southeast before dawn. The red planet, Mars, will be most difficult to find as it appears very low on the southwestern horizon after sunset. The thin crescent moon will be nearby on December 14 and 15 and can be used as a guide.

The ringed planet Saturn is also starting to make itself brighter as time goes by. It will be most visible in 2013 however, when it will be at its closest to the Earth in spring. The view of its gorgeous rings is always a fantastic sight through the telescope. On the other hand, Jupiter dominates the night sky during December as it is currently the closest it has been to the Earth in many years. It rises at sunset and remains visible all night long.

This month’s alignment of the planets has been touted as a possible cause of the end of the world. This is all rubbish, of course. Several planetary alignments have occurred over the past couple of years. All are interesting from an observational point of view, but they have absolutely no bearing on the Earth – or its inhabitants.

So you may safely ignore any claims that the alignment of the Earth, and the sun with all the planets with a super massive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy, will bring doom over the Earth. Have a nice Christmas!

For up-to-date information visit our new website www.maltastro.org.

Alexei Pace is president of the Astronomical Society of Malta.

Astronomical events this month

Tomorrow The moon near Saturn (morning sky).
December 11 The moon near Venus (morning sky).
December 12 The moon very near Mercury (morning sky).
December 13 New moon at 9.41am
Maximum of the Geminid meteor shower (up to 80 meteors per hour)
December 15 The moon near Mars (evening sky).
December 20 First quarter moon at 6.19am
December 21 Winter solstice at 12.12pm – winter starts in the northern hemisphere.
December 26 The moon very near Jupiter (evening sky).
December 28 Full moon at 11.22am

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