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🔭 What's up this week:
Mars is extremely bright right now, shining even brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. Learn why in our guide to December’s night skies. Overnight on Dec. 7-8, the Moon will pass in front of Mars as seen by most of North America and most of Europe. You can also see Jupiter and Saturn in the evening sky, shining bright in the southern skies (or northern skies for southern hemisphere viewers) with Saturn farther to the west.
What’s up in the night sky: December 2022
Our monthly feature focuses on easy and fun things to see in the night sky, including eclipses, supermoons, meteor showers, planetary conjunctions, and more.
Your current night sky view
Want a map of tonight's sky for your location? We recommend Stellarium, available on the web and for mobile devices.
Night Sky Toolkits
Astronomy for Beginners
An introduction to backyard astronomy for amateur stargazers.
How to Pick the Best Beginner Telescope
Picking out your first telescope can be overwhelming. This easy-to-follow guide will help you find the best telescope that you'll actually use.
Night Sky Photography for Beginners
An introduction to full-sky astrophotography using a digital camera.
Geminid meteor shower 2022: How to watch
Here's everything you need to know about the annual Geminid meteor shower and how to watch it.
Moon Toolkits
Moon features you can see from Earth
What can you see on the Moon tonight? This guide from The Planetary Society will help you identify some features.
What is a supermoon?
What is a supermoon, and why does it happen?
The Moon, preserving Earth's origin story
The Moon is the only world besides Earth ever visited by humans. By studying it, scientists can piece together Earth’s origin story.
Can the Moon be upside down?
When you think about how the Moon looks in the night sky, you might never have considered that it looks different to people in other parts of the world. But really, perspective is all relative.