Geminid meteors streak across the sky the night of December 14/15. After the Moon sets in midevening, you could see 120 meteors per hour from a dark site. Credit: Pierre Martin.
t’s Mars season again. The Red Planet reaches its biennial peak this month, arriving opposite the Sun in our sky and closest to Earth. This is the best time to view Mars, whose disk appears larger than it will for the next 9 years. Before Mars climbs high enough for steady views, catch Neptune and Uranus through binoculars before they set. Saturn rises shortly before midnight and is joined by Venus before dawn.
