Abstract
December announces a new season: winter. It also features the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. By the end of the month, the days are growing longer again. During this month, the Sun passes in front of the galactic bulge of the Milky Way. As a result, our night-time window lies in the direction of the anti-center of the Milky Way (see Fig. 3.1). The anti-center is the opposite direction of the galactic center. It is a point on the galactic equator near the border between Taurus and Gemini. Messier 35 lies only a few degrees away from the galactic anti-center. December is the least comfortable month to go stargazing, but this month’s celestials treasures are among the most famous objects in the sky. So dress warm and enjoy the tour. We will focus our attention on the constellations of Perseus, Taurus (the Bull) and Orion (Fig. 14.1).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
De Laet, R. (2012). December. In: The Casual Sky Observer's Guide. Astronomer's Pocket Field Guide. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0595-5_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0595-5_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-0594-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-0595-5
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)