Celestial Wonders: Holiday Magic Unwrapped with Astro Bob in Duluth

Winter is my preferred season. I enjoy the somber weather, low sun, and lengthy evenings ideal for stargazing. It’s quite simple to pull out the telescope post-dinner, explore the planets for an hour, and then retreat indoors to warm up.

Even though the Winter Solstice and early Christmas signify the darkest period of the year with minimal daylight, the sun has “turned a corner” and is now progressing back north in the sky. With each passing hour, it ascends a little higher. Seeking additional light? You can’t surpass the winter stars. This season boasts more luminous stars than any other, along with four shining planets. Venus and Saturn glitter in the southwest at dusk, while Jupiter and Mars are positioned in the northeast.

Jupiter and Mars enhance the brilliance of the Winter Hexagon, a configuration of six bright stars observable across the eastern and southeastern sky starting around 10 p.m. local time in late December. Arranged from the brightest to the dimmest, they are Sirius in Canis Major, Capella (Auriga), Rigel (Orion), Procyon (Canis Minor), Aldebaran (Taurus), and Pollux (Gemini).

Although not part of the figure, we will include Betelgeuse since it’s nearby and too radiant to disregard. Among these seven, Sirius is the nearest at 8.6 light-years away, while Rigel is significantly more distant at 860 light-years.

Light travels at an astonishing speed of 86,000 miles per second through the cosmos. However, the immense space separating even the closest stars from our solar system means it takes years for that light to reach us. Procyon is at a distance of 11.5 light-years from Earth; consequently, the light we view tonight departed the star 11.5 years ago, in 2012. Starlight is akin to vintage wine— the more remote the object, the older the light that reaches us.

When you venture out on the next clear night navigating around the Winter Hexagon and its surroundings, this list will assist you in valuing the distances of each of its constituents. It indicates the approximate year— or minutes in the case of the planets— that light departed from the seven bright stars visible tonight. Their distances in light-years are noted in parentheses.

Sirius — 2015 (8.6)
Procyon — 2012 (11.5)
Pollux — 1990 (34)
Capella — 1981 (43)
Aldebaran — 1959 (65)
Betelgeuse — 1384 (640)
Rigel — 1164 (860)
Jupiter — 34 minutes ago
Mars — 6 minutes ago

Enjoy your time-traveling this festive season!

“Astro” Bob King is an independent writer and retired photographer for the Duluth News Tribune. You can connect with him at nightsky55@gmail.com.