Christmas Day 2012

This is the sky as seen from Madrid (latitude 40N) at 07:30 local time on December 25^th 2012.

In 2012 the dawn sky on Christmas Day is similar to in 2010. However, both Venus and Saturn are much lower in the sky. Venus is 6 degrees high in Ophiuchus and, despite being magnitude –3.9, is none too easy to see without a very good eastern horizon.

Saturn, the ringed planet is 31 degrees high in Libra. Its rings are opening wider and so it is getting brighter: at Christmas 2012 it is now magnitude 0.6 and clearly slightly brighter than Spica.