The gibbous moon is in the zodiacal constellation Pisces Friday night. Getting larger in the coming weekend, the moon is full on Tuesday night. We call this December full moon the Holly Moon. The full moon appears in the zodiacal constellation Taurus, just north of the bright constellation Orion. With a little imagination, the Tuesday night full moon could be Orion’s head.

We watched Venus setting in the west this week. She is brilliant, unmistakable and hard to miss. This is a planet that asks for attention and can be watched for hours after sunset. Venus will remain our Christmas “star” for the remainder of the month and well into the coming year. Venus reaches greatest elongation from the sun in February, meaning that is the time when she will be as high she gets in the west. Then the brilliant planet in the span of a few weeks drops out of our western sky by spring.

Next summer Venus is a morning planet.