The Christmas night sky 2022: The planets pay a holiday visit.

[elleng]

During this final week of 2022, we can observe what I would call "The Christmas Sky."

In many ways there are signs of the holiday season in our current evening sky. At this time of year many bring up the subject of the Star of Bethlehem. If you look low toward the southwest horizon about 30 minutes after sundown, you'll see a brilliant object that might remind you of that fabled apparition. Indeed, it's so bright that appears more like a dazzling beacon as opposed to a star: it's the planet Venus, the brightest of all the planets and the third brightest object in our sky next to the sun and the moon.

And don't forget to look for a jolly guest in the night sky this Christmas: Santa Claus! You can track Santa's whereabouts on Christmas Eve thanks to NORAD's annual Santa Tracker.

https://www.space.com/42845-christmas-night-sky-stargazing-guide.html?

[Goonch]

1. 🌠

[progree]

2. For people having trouble keeping track of what's up and when, like me

To see a map of the sky from one's locale (you can change the time too, the default is the current time at your locale),

https://in-the-sky.org/skymap2.php

(get rid of that deep space junk with that checkbox below the sky map and on the left side -- nobody can see any of that stuff unless they live 50 miles from the nearest street lamp, so its just clutter)