The Messier List is an exceptional list of brighter deep-sky objects primarily made up of open and globular clusters, galaxies, planetary nebulae and other nebulae. In my opinion it’s the perfect list to learn your way around the sky. I highly recommend this program for those new to the hobby. It’s a fantastic way to learn how to star-hop using a telescope in order to find all 110 Messier objects.
You’ll learn a great deal about the different objects that you locate, how to find those objects in the sky and since there are new objects on the list coming into view with the passing of the seasons, it helps maintain the excitement and anticipation of not only your next observing session but of new objects to observe over a calendar year.
After a year that won’t soon be forgotten, of course I’m talking about the pandemic, there are a number of celestial events occurring this December that should peak your interest and get you out of the house in the cold morning or night air.
A pair of meteor showers, a pair of conjunctions (one of which will be epic), the December Solstice and a total solar eclipse for sky watchers in South America all happening in December. Throw in Christmas and New Year’s Eve and you have a busy month to be sure. So let’s run them down in a little more detail.
Tomorrow morning (Monday, February 17, 2020) be on the look out for a nice planetary alignment. If you are up early tomorrow morning and have a good view of the southeastern sky be sure to check out Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and the Moon as they line up in that order.
President’s Day Planetary Alignment
Additionally, for those in the DFW area the International Space Station will be making a fairly bright pass (-0.6 mag) right through this line up! In fact, the space station should pass between Saturn and Jupiter around 6:37 a.m. See the screen shot above that I made from Stellarium for more information regarding the alignment and passing of the ISS through them on Monday, February 17th 2020.
Current amateur astronomy information such as points of interest and events in the night sky, star party dates, educational information, telescopes buying tips and much more.
