December 2
The Warrior Rises
Sun Position
The Sun is in Sagittarius, about 22.2 degrees south declination. Northern Hemisphere twilight ends early; southern skies receive nearly 14 hours of daylight.
Sky Highlight
Orion stands fully clear of the eastern horizon by 9 PM for mid-northern latitudes, its belt stars and Betelgeuse unmistakable. For southern observers the constellation is prominent in the northeast, oriented differently but equally vivid. The Orion Nebula (M42) is accessible to the naked eye from a dark site this week.
Deep Sky Object
M1, the Crab Nebula (supernova remnant in Taurus, roughly 6,500 light-years away) rides above Aldebaran through the night; the expanding filamentary shell of a star that exploded in 1054 CE, it pulses at radio and X-ray wavelengths and harbors one of the best-studied pulsars in the sky.
Featured Star
Bellatrix (γ Ori) is a B2III blue giant about 243 light-years away, burning hot and fast at the left shoulder of Orion. The warrior's shoulder runs seven times hotter than the Sun and will exhaust its fuel on a timescale that is brief by stellar standards.
Around This Date
- December 7, 1972Apollo 17, the final crewed Moon mission, launched from Kennedy Space Center, carrying Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt, and Ronald Evans toward the Taurus-Littrow valley.
- December 7, 1995NASA's Galileo spacecraft fired its main engine and entered orbit around Jupiter, beginning a mission that would last until 2003 and reshape understanding of the planet's moons.
The blue shoulder of Orion has been a waypoint for sailors and storytellers alike; it is still earning the name.