astronomy
The constellations and planets of New Year’s Eve
A small part of the Milky Way can be seen in the starry night sky above the Black Lake in the Märkisch-Oderland district. photo
© Patrick Pleul/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
On New Year’s Eve there are not only fireworks to marvel at in the sky: the winter hexagon, Jupiter and the waning moon are also worth a look.
Rarely do so many people look up at the sky at the same time New Year’s Eve at midnight. Assuming there is a cloudless sky, there is not only the colorful spectacle of the New Year’s Eve fireworks to marvel at: the starry sky also offers a magnificent spectacle.
However, New Year’s Eve this year only offers partially good conditions for stargazing. According to the German Weather Service (DWD), there will initially be some rain in the eastern half of Germany on Monday night, but later there will be some major easing. Otherwise it will be variable to very cloudy and there will be showers in some areas – especially in the west and northwest.
Even during the fireworks display, if the weather is good, a particularly bright star with a calm glow will be noticeable high in the west. What you might initially think is a flare is actually Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system.
Constellations of the winter hexagon
Once the smoke from the fireworks has cleared, the winter sky is in all its glory. The southern part of the firmament up to the zenith is occupied by the constellations of the winter hexagon. It consists of the bright stars Kapella in Fuhrmann, Aldebaran in Taurus, Rigel in Orion, Sirius in Canis Major, Procyon in Canis Minor and Pollux in Gemini.
To the west of Aldebaran you can see a small cluster of stars, the Pleiades. It is a young star cluster 444 light-years away and contains many hundreds of stars. Depending on the visibility conditions, only six to nine of them are bright enough to be visible to the naked eye. It is therefore worth looking at the Pleiades with binoculars that are as bright as possible.
Band of the Milky Way
If the sky is dark enough, you can see the shimmering band of the Milky Way rising from the southeast, passing through Gemini and Fuhrmann and continuing northwest through Perseus, Cassiopeia and Cepheus. To the west of Taurus is Aries, currently enriched by the planet Jupiter, as well as Andromeda, Pisces, Pegasus and, deep in the southwest, Whale.
To the east of Gemini follows Cancer in the zodiac and Leo, the messenger of spring. There, in Leo, is the waning moon on New Year’s Eve. Cancer is home to one of the most beautiful star clusters in the northern sky: the Nativity Scene, known as Praesepe in Latin, 610 light years away. The star cluster contains about a thousand stars, but to the naked eye it looks like just a faint, foggy patch in the sky. But in binoculars it offers a magnificent sight.
Impressive: Hunter Orion
The most impressive constellation of winter is the hunter Orion with his belt and sword hanger. In Greek mythology, Orion is a giant hunter who was transported to the sky after his death along with his two dogs, Sirius and Procyon.
In the middle of the sword hanger you can see a blurry spot in the binoculars. This is the Great Orion Nebula, a gas cloud about 25 light years across and 1,300 light years away. Young, hot stars stimulate the gas there to glow. In the center of the cloud, the trapezoid of four bright stars can be seen with a telescope.
Anyone who celebrates the New Year until the early hours of the morning should look southeast on the way home. There, at dawn, Venus shines as a bright, radiant morning star. On New Year’s Day, the planet rises around 5:15 a.m. An hour before sunrise, the morning star is about 15 degrees above the horizon.