5 Sky Events This Week: Jupiter Parties, Geminids Fly, and Saturn Rises
December diamonds crown the night sky, sights for stargazers as the solar system's royalty dances.
Stellar diamonds and the King of the Planets provide some of the celestial treasures in store this week for sky-watchers.
To the waning gibbous moon's upper left will reside Gemini's twins—Castor and Pollux. Meanwhile, to the moon's lower right, the "big dog" constellation will sparkle with Canis Minor's brightest star, Procyon.
Messier 67 lies some 3,000 light-years from Earth, but it will appear only one degree from the moon. That is equal to the width of your thumb held at arm's length.
The cluster itself shines at magnitude 6.1 and appears about as wide as the full moon in the sky, making it an easy target for binoculars.
Through a small telescope, its hundreds of stars appear to form pretty chains and clumps across
