Planets in December – a List of Planets You Can See in Northern Hemisphere
Written by Marko on December 12, 2007
Are you looking for planets in the night sky? There are a number of interesting planets you can observe in northern hemisphere in December. This short article provides you a list of those planets with tips for locating those planets. For further information of objects in the night sky, check out my previous articles, such as “what constellations can be seen in different times” and “what can you actually see in a night sky“.
Let’s first define which planet cannot be seen in December. Those are Pluto, Mercury and Jupiter. All the other planets can be observed in December.
Venus – Morningstar Venus can easily be seen low in South-East. Venus is also called as a Christmas star because it can be seen very well in December. Venus is very bright in the mornings, so you should easily locate it.
Mars - Exacly on Christmas eve, in December 24th. Mars will be in opposition in the constellation of Gemini. It will rise from North-East during the Sun set, will stay high in South at midnight and will go down to South-West during Sun rise. At night December 23rd. and 24th. Mars is close to full moon and in the early morning 5:20 am to 6:10 am the full moon will cover the whole planet. Are you confused with the term “opposition”? According to Wikipedia “Opposition is a term used in positional astronomy and astrology to indicate when one celestial body is on the opposite side of the sky when viewed from a particular place (usually the Earth). In particular, two planets are in opposition to each other when their ecliptic longitudes differ by 180°“.
Neptune - Planet Neptune can be seen in evenings and early nights. It is located in the Capricorn constellation, but the planet is not easy to see without binoculars or a telescope. I recommend you to find the right star chart for locating Neptune because without the chart it is pretty difficult to find.
Saturn - Planet Saturn is located in Leo constellation. You can see it rising from East in the middle of December (right now!) around 10 pm (depending on your location in northern hemisphere) and it will be in South direction in the early morning. Saturn is a fantastic object to observe and you can see its cloud layers with a small telescope.
Uranus - You can see Uranus in the Aquarius constellation at late night. When the sky is clear, you can see Uranus without any equipment, but it is much easier to locate with binoculars. I recommend you to find a proper star chart for locating Uranus, just like with Neptune.
So, this is the nightsky in December. Happy skywatching and clear skies!
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02-03-2010
2:50 am
Lisa Stein
I like the pictures. I have seen some of the planets but not all of them. The ones I saw were very very very very very very very very very very very very cool. You should have saw them. I do not know what day or year it was but I enjoyed it very very very very very very very very very very very very very much.