The Tarantula Nebula (NGC 2070) is a large open cluster located in the southeast corner of the Large Magellanic Cloud. It includes the most massive star known, R136a1. Photo by MPAS member Russell Smith
Highlights this month
- 14MonGeminids meteor shower peaks (up to 150/hr). A thin 0% Moon leaves the sky dark.
- 20SunMercury in superior conjunction with the Sun — lost in the glare. (2:10pm)
- 21MonSummer solstice.
- 22TueUrsids meteor shower peaks (up to 10/hr). A 52% Moon washes out fainter meteors for part of the night.
The Magellanic Clouds can be seen sitting in the southern part of the night sky this month. The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) sits in Tucana, while the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) hovers on the border of the constellations Dorado and Mensa. Look out for the Tarantula Nebula (NGC 2070) in the LMC.
High in the northeast lies the fantastic nebula M42, in Orion. In the nearby constellation Taurus, you have a great opportunity to observe two open star clusters, the Hyades and the Pleiades. The Pleiades star cluster, or M45, can be seen with the naked eye and is a wonderful sight in a small telescope.
This month we have the Geminids meteor shower, which is considered one of the most spectacular meteor showers of the year with the possibility of sighting about 120 meteors an hour at its peak on the night of December 13-14. The shower owes its name to the constellation Gemini because the meteors seem to emerge from this constellation. Unlike most other meteor showers, the Geminids is not associated with a comet but with an asteroid called 3200 Phaethon. As Earth passes through a massive trail of dusty debris shed by the weird, rocky object, the dust and grit burns up as it runs into our atmosphere in a flurry of shooting stars. The asteroid takes about 1.4 years to orbit the Sun.
On December 17, Jupiter and Saturn will be remarkably close together with the thin crescent moon close by. Then a few nights later on December 21, Jupiter and Saturn will be even more spectacularly close together in a conjunction that will not be repeated for more than a decade. The pair will be easily visible together in telescope eyepieces.
By Nerida Langcake
This article appeared in the December 2020 issue of the Mornington Peninsula Magazine.
The sky in detail — December 2020
Sun & twilight
| Date | Sunrise | Sunset | Day length | Astro. dark begins | ends |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tue 1 | 5:50am | 8:28pm | 14h 37m | 10:20pm | 3:58am |
| Thu 10 | 5:50am | 8:36pm | 14h 46m | 10:31pm | 3:55am |
| Sun 20 | 5:52am | 8:42pm | 14h 50m | 10:39pm | 3:56am |
| Thu 31 | 5:59am | 8:46pm | 14h 47m | 10:42pm | 4:03am |
Days lengthen by about 10 minutes over the month.
The Moon
- Last QuarterTue 8, 11:44am
- New MoonTue 15, 3:20am
- First QuarterTue 22, 10:43am
- Full MoonWed 30, 2:30pm
Perigee 13 Dec (361,800 km) · Apogee 25 Dec (405,300 km)
The planets
Rise/set for mid-month at The Briars.
| Planet | In | Mag | Rise | Transit | Set | Best |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mercury | Oph | −1.0 | 5:36am | 1:03pm | 8:30pm | Hidden |
| Venus | Lib | −3.7 | 4:27am | 11:32am | 6:38pm | Hidden |
| Mars | Psc | −0.7 | 3:24pm | 8:58pm | 2:37am | Evening |
| Jupiter | Sgr | −1.8 | 8:36am | 3:48pm | 11:00pm | Evening |
| Saturn | Cap | 0.5 | 8:40am | 3:51pm | 11:02pm | Evening |
| Uranus | Ari | 5.7 | 4:43pm | 10:01pm | 3:24am | Evening |
| Neptune | Aqr | 7.9 | 12:41pm | 7:01pm | 1:24am | Evening |
Meteor showers
- Geminids — peaks 14 December, radiant in Gemini (up to 150/hr). The richest shower of the year; the radiant reaches a useful altitude after local midnight, so it rewards southern observers well. A thin 0% Moon leaves the sky dark.
- Ursids — peaks 22 December, radiant in Ursa Minor (up to 10/hr). A circumpolar northern shower whose radiant never rises from Victoria. A 52% Moon washes out fainter meteors for part of the night.
Computed for The Briars, Mt Martha. Times are local (Melbourne).
Generated automatically from the MPAS sky engine on 15 July 2026.
The solar system — December 2020
Evening sky Morning sky Up much of the night Lost in the Sun’s glare
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