Our meetings on the second Sunday of the Month, The events are normally held evening at 7:00 pm in Research Hall Room 163 on the campus of George Mason University.
Our web page, http://www.novac.com/meetings/, has directions and additional details.
We look forward to seeing you on Sunday evenings!
Normally a full Moon is a death sentence for a meteor shower, so a Supermoon on the night of December 14 will certainly put a damper on the usually-breathtaking Geminids. However, since the Geminids are the biggest and brightest shower of the year, a few “shooting stars” might peek through the Moon glow. Make a night of it by observing craters and geographical features on the Moon and see if a stray meteor streaks by here and there…
see http://cantonbecker.com/retrograde for details…
The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, respectively, in the sense that the length of time elapsed between sunrise and sunset on this day is a minimum for the year. Of course, daylight saving time means that the first Sunday in April has 23 hours and the last Sunday in October has 25 hours, but these human meddlings with the calendar and do not correspond to the actual number of daylight hours.
If you life in the southern hemisphere, this is your Summer Solstice, celebrating the longest day of the year.
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/WinterSolstice.html
The Quadrantids meteor shower can yield as many as 40 meteors per hour, radiating from the constellation Bootes. It peaks this year on the night of the 3rd and morning of the 4th. The first quarter moon will set shortly after midnight leaving fairly dark skies for what could be a good show. Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. Begin the new year by looking up!