The Andromeda galaxy is the closest major galaxy to our Milky Way. It is also the farthest object we can see with the naked eye, at over two million light years away. Like all other galaxies, the diffused light from the Andromeda galaxy is due to the hundreds of billions of stars that make it up. It is also thought that the Milky Way looks very similar to the Andromeda galaxy when seen from far away.

Without a telescope, this immense spiral galaxy looks like a smudge in the constellation Andromeda, visible overhead after sunset during December.

Nowadays we know there are millions of other galaxies spread throughout the universe, but the scientific advances that provided these breakthroughs in our knowledge of the make-up of the universe only took place in the past 100 years.

Elsewhere in the evening sky, Venus will start to emerge from the bright evening twilight. During the last week of the year, bright Venus will be low in the west-southwestern sky, setting around an hour after sunset. If you have an unobstructed western horizon you may even see planet Mercury to the lower right of the much brighter Venus.

This week giant planet Jupiter rises in the east around 10pm; however by the end of the year it will rise even earlier, in the constellation Leo, just as Mars will be setting in the west. On moonless nights, the ‘king of the planets’ will be the brightest planet in the sky, closely followed by the brightest star in the sky, Sirius. The ringed planet Saturn will also start making its morning appearance, and by the end of December it will rise some three hours before sunrise.

Have a look through binoculars at the full moon on the days around December 6 as it glides by through the Hyades star cluster in Taurus. By mid-December it will reach its last quarter, creating perfect viewing conditions for the Geminid meteor shower.

The Geminids are unique in that they can be seen in the late evening hours and often contain quite bright meteors, called bolides. Meteors are caused when particles in space burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere and create the glow of light we see when a meteor passes by.

The winter solstice occurs close to midnight of December 22 when the sun reaches its lowest point in the sky in our hemisphere. This is also the period where we have the fewest amount of daylight hours of the year, marking the first day of winter in the northern hemisphere.

Alexei Pace is president of the Astronomical society of Malta.

Astronomical events in December

Date Event
Saturday Full moon at 1.27pm. The moon is close to the bright star Aldebaran in Taurus.
December13  The moon is at apogee: 404,600km away.
December 14  Maximum activity from the Geminid meteor shower. Last quarter moon at 1.51pm.
December 19  The moon is close to the planet Saturn (morning sky).
December 22  Winter solstice at 00.03am.
December 24 The moon is at perigee: 364,800km away.
December 28 First quarter moon at 7.31pm.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.