This week on The Cosmic Companion, we begin a two-part series, exploring the winter sky.

We are going to take a look at what you can see using just your eyes. We'll welcome Andrew Fazekas back to the show. He is National Geographic's Night Sky Guy, and we'll talk about exploring the winter sky using eyes alone.

We'll also take a look at how to view the Geminid meteor shower peaking on the 14th and 15th of December!

Winter is often considered the best season for amateur astronomy. Heat rising off the ground in summer can make for wavey air, similar to heat rising above a chimney, distorting views of objects behind it. The cooler conditions of winter reduces this effect, providing better viewing during the winter season.

Viewers in the Northern Hemisphere can head on out a little after 8pm this December, to see Orion - one of the easiest constellations to find - hanging out above the southeastern horizon. Look for the three stars lined up as the belt of this celestial hunter. Just beneath the belt, you should see the Orion nebula - a stellar nursery appearing as a fuzzy patch of light, making up the center of three stars of its sword...

Listen to the podcast version of this episode here or watch it as a video!

Join us next week on The Cosmic Companion for the second part of this look at the winter sky. In part two, we'll take a look at - you guessed it - the objects you can see in the night sky this winter using a telescope - even if you have never used a telescope before! We will be joined by Michael Petrasko from Insight Observatory. Make sure to join us, starting on 17 December.

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Happy Holidays and clear skies!

James

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