Subj : Daily APOD Report To : All From : Ben Ritchey Date : Wed Dec 05 2018 05:40:46 Astronomy Picture of the Day Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2018 December 5 [2] Highlights of the North Winter Sky Image Credit & Copyright: Universe2go.com Explanation: What can you see [3] in the night sky this season? The featured graphic gives a few highlights for Earth [4] 's northern hemisphere. Viewed as a clock face centered at the bottom, early (northern) winter sky events fan out toward the left, while late winter events are projected toward the right. Objects relatively close to Earth [5] are illustrated, in general, as nearer to the cartoon figure with the telescope at the bottom center -- although almost everything pictured can be seen without a telescope [6] . As happens during any season, constellations [7] appear the same year to year, and, as usual, the Geminids meteor shower [8] will peak in mid-December. Also as usual, the International Space Station [9] (ISS) can be seen, at times [10] , as a bright spot drifting across the sky [11] after sunset. Less usual, the Moon is expected to pass nearly in front [12] of several planets in early January. A treat this winter is Comet 46P/Wirtanen [13] , already bright [14] , will pass only 36 lunar distances from the Earth in mid-December, potentially making it easily visible [15] to the unaided eye. Tomorrow's picture: open space ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- < [16] | Archive [17] | Submissions [18] | Index [19] | Search [20] | Calendar [21] | RSS [22] | Education [23] | About APOD [24] | Discuss [25] | > [26] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [27] (MTU [28] ) & Jerry Bonnell [29] (UMCP [30] ) NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [31] . NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [32] A service of: ASD [33] at NASA [34] / GSFC [35] & Michigan Tech. U. [36] ---------- Site notes: [1] archivepix.html [2] image/1812/WinterSky1819_u2g_5000.jpg [3] https://youtu.be/x2iN_RwGjAo [4] https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/earth/in-depth/ [5] https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/earth [6] https://www.lifewithdogs.tv/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ 577551_327739037281992_306958052693424_814778_1284589992_n.jpg [7] https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/88constellations.html [8] https://earthsky.org/space/everything-you-need-to-know-geminid-meteor-shower [9] ap161105.html [10] https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/ [11] ap140525.html [12] http://astropixels.com/ephemeris/astrocal/astrocal2019gmt.html [13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/46P/Wirtanen [14] ap181115.html [15] http://wirtanen.astro.umd.edu/46P/46P_status.shtml [16] ap181204.html [17] archivepix.html [18] lib/apsubmit2015.html [19] lib/aptree.html [20] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search [21] calendar/allyears.html [22] /apod.rss [23] lib/edlinks.html [24] lib/about_apod.html [25] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=181205 [26] ap181206.html [27] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html [28] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ [29] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html [30] http://www.astro.umd.edu/ [31] lib/about_apod.html#srapply [32] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html [33] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ [34] https://www.nasa.gov/ [35] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ [36] http://www.mtu.edu/ --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A39 (Windows/32) * Origin: FIDONet - The Positronium Repository (1:393/68) .