PLANETS TO VIEW: Venus and Saturn are the prominent planets in the east before sunrise, and Jupiter is in the south-southwest as darkness sets in. Mars and Mercury, meanwhile, remain hidden from us.
THE MOON is at first quarter tonight and waxes to gibbous and just short of full by the weekend. By the way, there will be a total lunar eclipse in the early morning hours of Dec. 21. Stay tuned.
THIS WEEK: With Orion gaining altitude in the prime-time hours, this is a good time to train binoculars or a telescope on one of the sky's most intriguing landmarks, the Orion Nebula (M42).
This is a classic example of a diffuse nebula, a massive area of glowing gas still in the process of creating new stars. In binoculars it appears as a nice hazy cloud, but it's a wonder in a telescope.
Strands of gas run in all directions, with a tiny four-star cluster called the Trapezium amid the nebula. Most of the stars, similar to the Belt stars, are distinctive blue in color.
M42 is about 1,500 light years away, and its gaseous strands in a well-set-up telescope will show green as well as white and blue. Use a lower-power telescope eyepiece to capture the colors better.
DID YOU KNOW? The higher the magnification eyepiece you use in a telescope, the less bright the viewed object is. Try this on the moon and you'll see for yourself.
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