The celestial highlights for the week ahead.
Thursday, December 9, 2021: A crescent Moon and Jupiter, Venus super-bright
Tonight is arguably the highlight of the weeks—the giant, bright planet Jupiter shining besides a bright 35%-lit waxing crescent Moon. Pull out some binoculars are see if you can find a few of Jupiter’s four largest moons—Europa, Callisto, Ganymede and Io. Tonight also sees Venus is at greatest brilliancy, so get eyes-on with the second planet from the Sun right after sunset. Look low on the western horizon. International Space Station containing Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa.Waxing to its First Quarter phase tonight, our satellite now becomes bright enough to begin to bleach the night sky. Stargazing gets trickier, though you’ll still be able to get eyes-on with bright stars—it’s still less than 10% as bright as a full Moon....