HIGHLIGHTS Venus and Moon close. Moon, Jupiter and Saturn together. 31/12 31/12 CONSTELLATIONS Jupiter and Saturn extremely close, rare meeting. 20 31 27 23 Part of the legend of Jason and the Argonauts had this hero steal 10 19 the golden fleece by slaying a dragon that never slept. Well, we RISE–SET15 CHART know that their famous ship is immortalised in our southern 30/11 30/11 DECEMBER 2020 11 SATURN RISE winter skies, but the source of the fleece also resides in the 7 heavens, as the constellation of Aries the Ram. Aries is Latin 3 JUPITER RISE 4,200 K) so is 20 PLUTO RISE for ram. Located 24° due west (left) of the Pleiadescool star cluster 8 am it doesn’t have much of an asterism to boast about, showing T E mostly two stars. This region of the sky is so barren these 2.0 10 S E N S I O and 2.6 magnitude stars, separated by only 4°, stand out well. R E th O IS N R M O RY The brighter star is Hamal (Alpha Arietis) which is Arabic rd 31/10 31/10 to 4 7 am O U RC M E M for lamb. It is a K2 spectral class star (a T E S yellowy-orange in colour. The other is Sheratan (Beta Arietis), 20 N O a name whose origin remains a mystery. It is a hotter (8,300 K) O T E 6 am M S E A5 class, white star. The sight of both in the same binocular S N I R O 10 ISE field really shows the colour contrast. O N R UN O M S O Directly beneath Aries is the constellation of Triangulum, M 30/9 30/9 5 am the Triangle. Although its three main stars (around 3 E S S IN I EG R E B magnitude) are arranged in a distinctive narrow isosceles S T RI GH N N I SU WIL T 20 O E T triangle, the name lacks imagination. Especially when one E S O RI S S U M SE EN N I V Y R 4 am considers it came from the same ancients that brought us a O R CU O R ME flying horse (Pegasus), magic flying rams (Aries), gods (many) 10 URANUS SET M URANUS SET URANUS SET URANUS SET and a sea monster (Cetus)—to name a few! Its slightly moreth ME RCUR MARS SET Y RISE interesting original name was Deltotron, after the depiction of E 31/8 31/8 RIS 3 am 30 Dec MARS US S SET VEN GIN the Greek letter delta (capitalised). T BE dia 4.8" LIGH SET MARS SET TWI MARS APPEARANCE of the PLANETS mag .0 . S E 20 E N RIS Mercury in superior conjunction on the 20 N S U Y RI S 10 Dec O CUR O MER 2 am dia 4.7" M mag .0 ISE 10 SUN R MERCURY 1 Dec Neptune Set NEPTUNE SET NEPTUNE SET NEPTUNE SET NEPTUNE SET dia 4.9" MARS ma 0.8 15 Dec 31/7 31/7 1 am E S RIS E EGIN dia 12.7" Y S T B T UR I ILIGH E C R W ma 0.7 R T MIDNIGHT E S M N SE RI N O US T O N E E O VE S 20 T O S I M E R E M N S VENUS S am E N I 12 O N S R O I O 15 Dec O R E O N E S M S I O RIS E GIN S R N O N E M dia 11.2" S B U U T 10 T M 10 S I GH EN t I O O IL V E R W e T S mag 3.9 O M S N N M O O n O S o N BEGI O pm o M 30/6 30/6 HT 11 ILIG M MIDNIGHT M SATURN SATURN SET TW SATURN SET URANUS S SATURN SET 15 Dec ATURN SET RN SET ER SET 15 Dec PLU SATURN SET SATU ITER SET JUPIT PLUTO SET TO SET PLUTO SET JUP dia 15.4” dia 3.7" JUPI 20 TER SET URANUS TRANSIT PLUTO SET PLUTO SET PLUTO SET mag 0.6 mag 5.7 URANUS TRANSIT URANUS TRANSIT URANUS TRANSIT pm URANUS TRANSIT JUPITER SET ER SET URANUS TRANSIT 10 JUPIT JUPIT RISE ER SET NEPTUNE UN DS 10 M S M EN erc. R. ARS TRANSIT HT 15 Dec LIG WI dia 2.3" MIDNIGHT T RANSIT mag 7.9 MERC MARS T 31/5 31/5 URY RIS 9 pm E MAR TRANSIT T S TRANSIT MARS E E T S PLUTO S SI MARS TRANSIT I RS TRAN R S A E T N M SE IN IS RI G R E 15 Dec O E S N JUPITER N B U S U T N O S GH VE O 20 ILI N dia 0.1" O E M W T O . S I M O mag 14.7 R 8 pm 81 M T N E S ET O N E SU S VE IS O Y 10 NUS R. US R DS R N M N U IT VE E C RANS T R ARS T GH E M MIDNIGHT ILI M NEPTUNE TRANSIT NEPTUNE TRANSIT TW NEPTUNE TRANSIT 7 pm 30/4 30/4 EPTUNE Tr. NEPTUNE TRANSIT NEPTUNE TRANSIT NEPTUNE TRANSIT N NEPTUNE TRANSIT 15 Dec E IS S dia 33.6" R IN Y EG VENUS RISE R SIT T B mag .0 U AN H T C TR G E S I E R L E R A I S 20 E I M S E W S T T S I T R M I E N R E E R E S N S S O S S 6 pm I N E D I N O O N T N S R E T O E N R I 30 O O T S E O M H R S O N O S N G O E U I T M O IL N O S O T M T N S 10 E N O E E M 26 N E I W S E I V S M G T S I O S O M E O R N R B O N T SU Y O N U H M R M O S IG U N 22 L O M I MIDNIGHT C O W R M T O E Y SET M O 18 CUR M 31/3 R 31/3 ME M 5 pm S Tr. AR URANUS RISE URANUS RISE URANUS RISE 20 31/12 M URANUS RISE URANUS RISE 14 URANUS RISE URANUS RISE Uranus R. URANUS RISE 10 T 6 20 SE T 10 Y T SE UR SE S 2 URN TRANSIT SATURN TRANSIT SATURN C N NU 4 pm Tr. SAT TRANSIT ER SU E Sat. SATURN TRANSIT MARS RISE M V JUPIT SATURN T MARS RISE r. DECEMBER JUPITER TRANSIT ER TRANSIT JUPITER TRANSIT RANSIT SATURN TRANSIT Saturn T Approximate local standard time, for daylight saving add 1 hour. 10 Pluto Tr. PLUTO TRANSIT Saturn Transit PLUTO TRANSIT PLUTO TRANSIT PLUTO TRANSIT PLUTO TRANSIT PLUTO TRANSIT PLUTO JUPITER Tr. TRANSIT PLUTO TRANSIT r. JUPITER TRANSI PITER TRANSIT ars T E T JU 29/2 29/2 M RIS J JUPITER TRANSIT T U N PITER TRANSIT MA 20 E M SU JUPITER TRANSIT RS RI ARS RISE 30/11 E SE . S T S R I E N R S N E S O S RIS D N N R A N O 20 S O MIDNIGHT M T E T O O N O I T H T M G 10 G I E E O E O L E I M E B S S W T S S T M M H I IG T N N E L N I E R S W N O S O T I O U N S R O O 10 O Y O R M M T M U O E C ISE S R M R S E E MAR N IS M MIDNIGHT R O UN 31/1 31/1 O S NEPTUNE RISE NEPTUNE RISE M E NEPTUNE RISE NEPTUNE RIS NEPTUNE RISE 20 NEPTUNE RISE NEPTUN 31/10 RISE E RISE NEPTUNE . ISE R NEPTUNE R n o 20 o MERC T UR E M 10 Y RIS S S E D Y E T N S E R S N I GI E HT U R S E T IG B E IL C T IS E R W N H N R E S S T 10 IG AR O IL O M M E W E N O T S O T I S R O Y I E E M R M U R O S S C R I ME N M R N E IS O R E O N 31/12 31/12 S N E E O U I O O S S 30/9 S 20 I R I M M O R R N M N N O O T O O MIDNIGHT SE O O N SE M SU I M R M 10 US EN T S V E ND S E T N H ILIG S O TW E GIN O ISE T S R I BE M S E R R T MA ET S Y H MIDNIGHT S R LIG UN N U I S C TW O R E TURN RISE SATURN RISE O SA M ISE RISE SATURN RISE 31/8 M TURN N R SA SATURN RISE 20 SU SA SATURN RISE JUPITER RISE T.