By Dan Hicks

Though our December 22 morning temperature was never colder – down to minus 35.5 C, the moonless predawn sky over Wycliffe was never clearer and its stars never brighter, revealing a panoply of stars and stellar forms long banished from Cranbrook itself, spanning the celestial seasons with winter constellations like Canis Minor and the Gemini Twins setting above the western horizon. Along with the Red Planet itself setting in the northwest, spring constellations Leo and Virgo transiting to the south and, to the east – rising over the Rockies, were summer constellations Hercules, Ophiuchus, and Cygnus – our “Northern Cross.”

Lead image: Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) – telescopic image – processed (stacked). Michael Jäger @Komet123Jager (twitter.com). Weißenkirchen, Austria. December 18, 2022, 04:30 UT.

Article Share