2008 says goodbye, 2009 says hello with night sky treat

William Atkins
Sunday, 28 December 2008 19:35

Science - Space

Then, on Tuesday night, the night sky continues with its brilliant show as the Moon will be positioned about half-way between the Jupiter-Mercury pair and Venus.

Its lunar size will be getting larger as its crescent shape gets a little bit wider each night.

It’s a waxing crescent phase as it approaches its first quarter phase later in January 2009.

The Moon moves a little further eastward each night as it makes its way around the Earth on its near-monthly orbit.

With an orbit completed every 27.3 or so days, it moves about 13 degrees every twenty-four hours.

In other words, 13 degrees times 27.3 days equals 354.9, or about 360 degrees, the number of degrees in one orbital period.

See what happens on New Year's Eve, on page three, along with a sky map of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.