Dark Sky News
December 2025
This week’s meeting: Dec. 4 @7:30pm (the night of the next Supermoon!)
Next meeting: Jan. 8 @7:30pm
Click here for the SAS Picture of the Month (December 2025)!
Saturn and Neptune are 4.3° apart on Dec. 1 and Saturn is within 3.5° of Neptune by the 31st. Saturn is easy to spot at magnitude 1.0: the brightest object in the region except when the Moon passes by Dec. 26. Both planets stand 45° high in the southern sky as soon as it’s dark and set by midnight, so plan to observe in early evening.
Uranus spends all month in Taurus, located south of the Pleiades (M45). The planet is very easy to spot as it wanders south of a pair of 6th-magnitude stars, 13 and 14 Tauri.
Jupiter rises about 8 p.m. local time Dec. 1 and a little over two hours earlier by the 31st. Just one month from opposition in January, Jupiter reaches magnitude –2.7 by Dec. 31st. The disk spans 44″ at the start of December and grows to 46″ by the New Year.
One of the most active meteor showers of the year with up to 120 meteors per hour possible! Though only 10 days after the full Moon…so try viewing in the early evening hours
The December solstice occurs at 10:03 a.m. EST. A dream night for astroimagers!
There’s no interference from the Moon, although rates are about one-tenth that of the Geminids. With the radiant up all night, however, there’s a good chance you’ll spot some of its shower members.