Dec 27 - Spectacular Moon and Venus This Weekend

December 27 Spectacular Moon and Venus by:

As the year wanes, the young moon returns to the west after sunest. We show Saturn on our chart, too, but it'll take a deliberate effort (and possibly binoculars) to spot it. Don't miss the moon and Venus Saturday evening! Read more.

Between now and early January, you'll find us in your inbox from time to time, but not every day. Happy new year! This weekend … Don't miss the young moon and Venus If your sky is clear, you can catch the whisker-thin crescent moon - and possibly Saturn - in the west at dusk tonight. You'll surely see dazzling Venus, above them. This young moon will be fresh from its ring of fire eclipse a day earlier. On Saturday and Sunday evenings, the moon will be even easier to catch. It'll be closest to Venus on Saturday. A wondrous sky scene for the whole world! #OneSky Read more. Photos of yesterday's ring of fire eclipse The annular solar eclipse was viewed across a narrow track that started at sunrise in Saudi Arabia and ended at sunset over the North Pacific Ocean. See photos. Correction: We mistakenly said that - for an annular solar eclipse to occur - the new moon has to be near apogee, its farthest point from Earth. It's often true that - during an annular eclipse - the moon is near apogee. But that wasn't the case on December 26. In fact, the December new moon was almost exactly at its mean distance from Earth. Yet - at mid-eclipse - the moon appeared too small from Earth to cover the sun's disk completely. Why? The answer is that - at this time of year - Earth is close to perihelion, its closest point to the sun for the year. In 2020, Earth's perihelion will come on January 5 at 07:48 UTC. So, in our sky around now, the sun's disk now appears slightly larger than usual: hence, the December 26 annular solar eclipse. Cool ... yes?

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Photos of yesterday's ring of fire eclipse View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Here's the progression into and out of yesterday's annular eclipse, from Tumon Bay, Guam. Eliot Herman reported: "It was a beautiful day in Guam to observe the eclipse mostly clear blue skies with a little marine haze on the coast. These images were captured with a Questar telescope and a Nikon D850 camera using a Baader solar filter." Thank you, Eliot!  View more photos of the eclipse.

Photos of yesterday's 'ring of fire' eclipse View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Nikunj Rawal wrote from Jamnagar, Gujarat, India: "... 73% maximum eclipse at 09:17 a.m. at Jamnagar, India on December 26. Was worth experience to witness and capture the phenomenon using a long-focal-length telephoto lens with well planned preparations of 2 weeks ...The annular phase of this solar eclipse was not visible here, unlike South Indian states. This sequence is a combination of 2 consecutive exposures taken with the same camera using the same settings — one taken of the landscape and another of the background of sun using 3.8mm Baader filter." Thank you, Nikunj!  View more photos of the eclipse. Submit your photo to EarthSky here! Did a friend forward EarthSkyNews to you? Click here to get your own subscription!

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