Share the holiday celebrations with two celestial objects in the night sky this New Year’s Eve. The gibbous moon will appear right next to the bright planet Jupiter, low in the southeastern sky on the last night of the old year.

The two rise above the horizon and enter the eastern sky an hour before midnight. By midnight, they are high and easy to see.

Jupiter is brilliant, the brightest planet in the east at that hour. Jupiter and the moon will rise together and dominate the sky well towards morning. Venus rises in the east several hours later, before sunrise.

Venus is far brighter than Jupiter. However, Jupiter has the prominent position of being high in the sky just before dawn. Venus  appears only for a short time before the light of dawn takes charge.

Most of us will be asleep and recovering from too much grog at dawn to see Saturn, Venus and Mars in the east. But for the weeks ahead, Saturn is below Venus and the red planet Mars above.

Sirius

The evening sky is filled with the constellations we associate with winter. Orion now dominates our early evening sky. The brightest star of the evening, Sirius is in the small constellation Canis Major. Sirius glows low in the southeastern sky at 8 p.m. and can also be distinguished from all other stars because it has a bright blueish tint.