There’s a great tool I recommend to anyone interested in observing the night sky and it’s free to download every month. They have created these for various places on Earth as well!
If you haven’t already heard of it, it’s the two page free download over at SkyMaps.com
SkyMap for December 2020
Here’s the process of getting the SkyMap for your location…
Visit the site > scroll down a bit, if necessary > click on the download button > pick your location: Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere or Equator > download the SkyMap for yourself
Every month, they offer a new ‘SkyMap’ for each part of Earth and you can download and print one for yourself that month to use when you observe the night sky. These are great for several reasons. I’ll talk a little bit more about that later on. Right now, Here are the things you can look for…
December 2020
8th
Last Quarter Moon
10th
Moon near Spica
12th
Moon at perigee (closest to Earth)
14th
New Moon
Geminid Meteor Shower
Total Solar Eclipse (South Pacific, Chile, Argentina and South Atlantic)
17th
Moon, Jupiter & Saturn are in conjunction
21st
December Solstice
Jupiter & Saturn Great Conjunction
21st
First Quarter Moon
24th
Mars & the Moon in conjunction
Moon is at apogee (farthest from Earth)
27th
Moon near Pleiades
Moon near Aldebaran
Notable objects…
Easily Seen with the Naked Eye
The Pleiades Star Cluster
Easily Seen with Binoculars
The Andromeda Galaxy
Telescopic Objects
The Messier objects… M1, M33, M81,M82, M27
Ways I have used the SkyMaps…
I like to print them out, double sided, and give them to people who come to my Star Party or who take my class. They make a great ‘handout’ for pennies!
I print them out for my own observing sessions too. I put a date on them and make notes or draw things in the margins.
On the back, or page 2, I put a check mark next to every one of the objects I see in the night sky during that sitting in all the categories: Naked Eye, Binoculars and Telescopic Objects. This makes a great record of your observing session and it’s easy to do.
If you go out more than once in a month, you can print out and date a new version each time, then put them together in a binder to track your progress.
I have written the names of people I met and drawn things in the margins like the phase of the Moon and the positions of the moons of Jupiter for that session.
How might you use such a tool for our own observing sessions? I love learning new ways to use tools already on hand, thanks in advanced!
