December 14
The Forward Foot Pulses
Sun Position
The Sun is in Sagittarius, near 23.4 degrees south declination, very close to the solstice. Northern Hemisphere daylight has nearly reached its annual minimum; southern days are correspondingly near their maximum.
Sky Highlight
The Geminids linger past peak on December 14, still offering above-average rates in the pre-dawn hours. The shower's debris stream is broad enough that the night after peak can still yield dozens of meteors per hour from a dark site.
Deep Sky Object
NGC 2264, the Christmas Tree Cluster and Cone Nebula complex in Monoceros, lies about 2,400 light-years away and is well-positioned in December evenings; the open cluster is detectable in binoculars, while the associated Cone Nebula and broader Rosette-adjacent star-forming region reward imaging.
Featured Star
Propus (η Gem) is an M3IIIab red giant about 350 light-years away, a Mira-type variable that pulses between magnitudes 3.3 and 3.9 over a period of roughly 233 days. The forward foot of the twins dims and brightens on a cycle long enough to be noticeable month to month but short enough to track within a year.
Around This Date
- December 14, 1972Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt completed the final Apollo 17 moonwalk, spending over 7 hours on the surface in the Taurus-Littrow valley before sealing the hatch of Challenger for the last time.
- December 15, 1965Astronauts Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford in Gemini 6A maneuvered within 30 centimeters of Gemini 7, accomplishing the first orbital rendezvous between two crewed spacecraft, a critical rehearsal for eventual lunar missions.
Propus pulses on its own schedule, indifferent to the meteor shower above it; the sky is full of independent clocks.