A sky cluster for the last night of the year

The Moon, Uranus, and the Pleiades try to put on a show for the end of 2025. They gather into a circle that tightens to a diameter of 5.18°, and they are well up in sky, about 139° from the Sun.

The trouble with their attempt to please is that the light of the almost full Moon is bound to overwhelm that of the planet, which is 8 magnitudes dimmer and barely visible to the unaided eye even in a moonless sky.

The central moment comes in December 31 by Universal Time, but for America the nearest time is in the night of December 30.

For you to see the illustration, I again have to post it in Facebook and ask you to click this link. This is the only way until we’ve found whatever it is that is blocking me from uploading images here.

 

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3 thoughts on “A sky cluster for the last night of the year”

  1. Uranus is not merely 8 magnitudes fainter than the Full Moon; it more like 18 magnitudes fainter.

    1. Correct.
      1040.942 Dec 31 Wed 11 Moon, Uranus, and the Pleiades within circle of diameter 5.18°; about 139° from the Sun in the evening sky; magnitudes -12, 6, 3

  2. I’ve been enjoying watching through binoculars as Uranus moves retrograde south of the Pleiades. The sixth magnitude stars 14 and 13 Tauri, 21 arcminutes apart and right on the ecliptic, have been perfect milestones, you can see Uranus move slightly from one night to the next. On December 13 Uranus passed a few arcminutes south of 14 Tau, and south of 13 Tau on December 22. I missed the December 22 conjunction, but Uranus was still close when the sky cleared last night.

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