The Helix Nebula – also known as NGC 7293 or Caldwell 63 – is a planetary nebula located 650 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius. This object is one of the closest to Earth of all the bright planetary nebulae. Photo: MPAS member Nik Axaris
Highlights this month
- 2FriThe Moon passes Jupiter — 2° apart. (2:01pm)
- 4SunNeptune is stationary — resumes direct (eastward) motion. (5:58pm)
- 8ThuThe Moon passes Mars — 0.5° apart. (3:19pm)
- 8ThuMars at opposition — closest and brightest of the year, up all night in Taurus (mag −1.9). (4:35pm)
- 14WedGeminids meteor shower peaks (up to 150/hr). A bright 70% Moon interferes badly this year.
- 22ThuMercury at greatest evening elongation (20° from the Sun, mag −0.5) — best evening apparition. (2:26am)
- 22ThuSummer solstice.
- 22ThuUrsids meteor shower peaks (up to 10/hr). A thin 2% Moon leaves the sky dark.
- 27TueThe Moon passes Saturn — 4° apart. (5:30am)
- 29ThuMercury is stationary — begins retrograde (westward) motion. (1:47pm)
- 29ThuThe Moon passes Jupiter — 2° apart. (11:25pm)
If you are observing the sky with binoculars, there is a great deal to see looking south this month. NGC 3114 and NGC 2516 are both prominent open clusters worth observing in Carina in the southeast. The Eta Carina Nebula, or NGC 3372, is a bright diffuse nebula visible through binoculars or a small telescope. The bright open cluster IC 2602, or the Southern Pleiades, is a great binocular object. Also look out for the Small Magellanic Cloud in Tucana and the Large Magellanic Cloud sitting on the border of the constellations Mensa and Dorado. A small telescope will show star clusters and bright patches of nebulosity within it.
Mars’s orbit around the sun will carry it to its closest point to Earth – its perigee – on December 1. Since the size and brightness of Mars in the night sky both increase when it is close to us, the days around its perigee represent the best time to observe it. Mars will reach perigee around the time when it passes Earth in its orbit. At this time, the sun, Earth and Mars lie in a straight line, with Earth in the middle. Consequently, on December 8 Mars appears almost exactly opposite the sun in the sky – a configuration called opposition, when Mars reaches its highest point in the sky at midnight and is visible for much of the night.
This month we have the Geminids meteor shower on the night of December 14-15. The shower owes its name to the constellation Gemini because the meteors seem to emerge from this constellation in the sky. Unlike most other meteor showers, the Geminids are 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 burn up as they run into Earth’s atmosphere in a flurry of shooting stars. The asteroid takes about 1.4 years to orbit the sun.
By Nerida Langcake
This article appeared in the December 2022 issue of the Mornington Peninsula Magazine.
The sky in detail — December 2022
Sun & twilight
| Date | Sunrise | Sunset | Day length | Astro. dark begins | ends |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thu 1 | 5:51am | 8:27pm | 14h 37m | 10:20pm | 3:58am |
| Sat 10 | 5:50am | 8:35pm | 14h 46m | 10:31pm | 3:55am |
| Tue 20 | 5:52am | 8:42pm | 14h 50m | 10:39pm | 3:55am |
| Sat 31 | 5:59am | 8:46pm | 14h 47m | 10:42pm | 4:03am |
Days lengthen by about 11 minutes over the month.
The Moon
- First QuarterThu 1, 1:34am
- Full MoonThu 8, 3:14pm
- Last QuarterFri 16, 7:58pm
- New MoonFri 23, 9:20pm
- First QuarterFri 30, 12:20pm
Apogee 12 Dec (405,800 km) · Perigee 24 Dec (358,300 km)
The planets
Rise/set for mid-month at The Briars.
| Planet | In | Mag | Rise | Transit | Set | Best |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mercury | Sgr | −0.6 | 7:06am | 2:37pm | 10:08pm | Hidden |
| Venus | Sgr | −3.7 | 6:45am | 2:12pm | 9:39pm | Hidden |
| Mars | Tau | −1.7 | 7:53pm | 12:35am | 5:11am | All night |
| Jupiter | Psc | −2.2 | 1:38pm | 7:44pm | 1:55am | Evening |
| Saturn | Cap | 0.7 | 10:26am | 5:19pm | 12:16am | Evening |
| Uranus | Ari | 5.7 | 5:27pm | 10:36pm | 3:50am | Evening |
| Neptune | Psc | 7.9 | 1:04pm | 7:19pm | 1:37am | 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 bright 70% Moon interferes badly this year.
- Ursids — peaks 22 December, radiant in Ursa Minor (up to 10/hr). A circumpolar northern shower whose radiant never rises from Victoria. A thin 2% Moon leaves the sky dark.
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 2022
Evening sky Morning sky Up much of the night Lost in the Sun’s glare
Open the full interactive orrery ↗ — fast-forward, pick any date, toggle the Moon and more.
Looking for an earlier month? Browse all past monthly guides →