Planets

Brilliant Venus gleams like a beacon in the western sky immediately after sunset, twinkling like a brilliant diamond against the darkening sky. Jupiter, largest of all planets, rides high in the eastern sky, nestled within the constellation of Taurus the Bull. To Jupiter's west, Saturn can also be found within the constellation Taurus, but closer to the Pleiades star cluster. All will dominate the heavens this season, with Venus and Jupiter outshining even brilliant Sirius, the sky's brightest star.

Christmas Eclipse

This year, North America gets a Christmas gift from Mother Nature as she gives us a partial solar eclipse on December 25. Sometime during that day, all of the continental United States, most of Canada, and all of Mexico and the Caribbean will witness the Moon partially cover the Sun. When should you look and what will you see? Here are some times and eclipse magnitudes:

City	Start	Max	End	Percent of Sun covered
Atlanta, Georgia	10:52 a.m.	12:25 p.m.	2:00 p.m.	32
Boston, Massachusetts	11:15 a.m.	12:52 p.m.	2:23 p.m.	46
Chicago, Illinois	9:44 a.m.	11:17 a.m.	12:53 p.m.	43
Dallas, Texas	9:38 a.m.	10:56 a.m.	12:22 p.m.	23
Denver, Colorado	8:29 a.m.	9:44 a.m.	11:06 a.m.	27
Detroit, Michigan	10:51 a.m.	12:26 p.m.	2:03 p.m.	46
Los Angeles, California	7:37 a.m.	8:22 a.m.	9:12 a.m.	7
Miami, Florida	11:11 a.m.	12:38 p.m.	2:04 p.m.	20
Montreal, Quebec	11:09 a.m.	12:45 p.m.	2:18 p.m.	51
New York, New York	11:09 a.m.	12:47 p.m.	2:20 p.m.	44
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	11:07 a.m.	12:45 p.m.	2:18 p.m.	43
Portland, Oregon	Before sunrise	8:27 a.m.	9:33 a.m.	21
Salt Lake City, Utah	8:28 a.m.	9:34 a.m.	10:49 p.m.	23
San Francisco, California	7:33 a.m.	8:21 a.m.	9:13 a.m.	9
Toronto, Ontario	10:58 a.m.	12:34 p.m.	2:09 p.m.	48
Washington, DC	11:03 a.m.	12:41 p.m.	2:16 p.m.	42

In this case, the farther north you are, the greater the eclipse. Greatest eclipse, when more than two-thirds of the Sun is covered by the Moon, will be witnessed from northern Canada.

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An important word of caution: You should NEVER look directly at the Sun without taking proper precautions, or blindness may result. To view the eclipse safely, construct a simple pinhole camera from two pieces of cardboard. Punch a hole in one about the diameter of a pencil, then hold the cardboard so that the Sun shines through the hole onto the second piece. Then, watch as the eclipse unfolds. You can also use binoculars to project the Sun onto a sheet of cardboard, but again, NEVER look through the binoculars to aim them. Mounting them on a tripod, then moving them back and forth until the Sun comes into view, will make viewing the eclipse far easier.

January Meteors

The Quadrantid meteor shower is the new year's first celestial event. Unlike other meteor showers that tend to last for several days either side of their peak date, the Quadrantids always exhibit a short, but often intense spike in the number of meteors. The best time to view the event is just before the start of morning twilight on January 4, when the shower's radiant (the point in the sky that the meteors appear to radiate from) will be highest in the northeastern sky. You might be able to count between 30 and 50 meteors per hour with ideal observing conditions.