December 1^st: Day 335 of the gregorian calendar.
History: In 1960, the space dogs Pchelka (little bee) and Mushka (little fly) were launched on board Korabl-Sputnik-3, a.k.a. Sputnik 6.

Observations:Mercury is at maximum elongation East (21º), at 15h (UTC). Saturn is 8ºN of the Moon.

December 2^nd: Day 336 of the gregorian calendar.
History: In 1993, the mission STS-61of Space Shuttle Endeavour, made the first Hubble maintenance mission.
Observations:Venus is 6ºN of the Moon.

December 3^rd: Day 337 of the gregorian calendar.
History: In 1958, JPL was trasnfered from the Army's controle to NASA.
In 1971, the sovioet probe Mars 3 becomes the first to successfully land on Mars
In 1973, Pioneer 10 sent to Earth the first images of Jupiter.
In 1974, Pioneer 11's flyby to Jupiter.
In 1999, NASA lost contact with Mars Polar Lander, minutes before its entry in Mars' atmosphere .

Observations: Jupiter is still high in the evening and provides nice observations with our students.

December 4^th: Day 338 of the gregorian calendar.
History: In 1965, Gemini 7 mission was launched. The mission had a goal to test the results of long lasting space flights and make a "rendezvous" with Gemini 6.
In 1978, the american probe Pioneer/Venus becomes the first to orbit Venus.
In 1996, Mars Pathfinder was launched.

Observations:Venus is at its brightest at 10h (UTC).

December 5^th: Day 339 of the gregorian calendar.
History: In 1990, the first image taken with Keck telescope (Eridanus galaxy NGC 1232) was published on the Los Angeles Times.

In 2001, mission Expedition 4, was launched towards the ISS.
Observations: New Moon at 18h (UTC). 

December 6^th: Day 340 of the gregorian calendar.
History: In 1771, John Bevis, dies, four days before completing 76 years old. In 1731, John Bevis saw the Crab nebula which was forgotten since 1064, when a star exploded leaving an incredibly bright area in the sky for almost a month.

Observations: Uranus is stationary at 10h (UTC).

December 7^th: Day 341 of the gregorian calendar.
History: In 1905,  Gerard Kuiper was born.He discovered the moons of Uranus and Neptune, Titan's atmosphere and he studied the origin of the solar system Solar System.

In 1972 Apollo 17 was launched.It was the last mission of Project Apollo. It also marked the last time a human being landed on the Moon. The mission lasted 301 hours, 51 minutes and 59 seconds, and recovered most of the lunar samples that have been brought back to Earth. The mission commander was Eugene A. Cernan. Ronald E. Evans was the pilot of the controle module and Harrison H. Schmitt was the pilot of the lunar module. Schmitt was the only professional geologist profissional to ever go to the Moon.

In 1990, the Galileo aproaches Earth on its way from Venus to Jupiter.
In 1995, the Galileo probe  sucessfully falls into Jupiter's atmosphere and takes direct measurements of a planet's atmosphere for the first time.
Observations: Mercury 1.8ºS of the Moon at 9h (UTC).

December 8^th: Day 342 of the gregorian calendar.
History: In 1990, flyby to Earth of the Galileo Probe.
Observations:The 2010 solstice comes on December 21st, but the earliest sunsets for the northern hemisphere are around this night. It seems paradoxical. Throughout the northern hemisphere the earliest sunsets of the year come about two weeks before the solstice and the shortest day of the year. Why isn’t the earliest sunset on the year’s shortest day? It’s because the clock ticks off exactly 24 hours from one noon to the next. But the actual days – as measured by the spin of the Earth, from what is called one “solar noon” to the next – rarely has exactly 24 hours (try to learn about this researching about the equation of time).

December 9^th: Day 343 of the gregorian calendar.
History: In 1571, Metius was born. He wrote books about astronomy and his brother invented a telescope with 3-4 tines magnification in 1608.
Observations: Try to see Orion late in the evening and the Winter's Milky Way which is glimpsed when we look to the outer side of the galaxy disk near Orion and Taurus.

December 10^th: Day 344 of the gregorian calendar.
History: In 1901 Nobel Prizes were awarded for the first time. Röntgen would win the Physics for the discovery of X-rays.

Observations: Mercury is stationary at 10h (UTC).

December 11^th: Day 345 of the gregorian calendar.
History: In 1863,  Annie Jump Cannon, the pioneer american in spectral classification, was born.
In 1901, Marconi send his first transatlantic signal.
In 1972,  Apollo 17 lands on the Moon.
Observations: Neptune 5ºS of the Moon at 15h (UTC).

December 12^th: Day 346 of the gregorian calendar.
Observations: December 12 is one of the peak nights of the 2010 Geminid meteor showers. Monday, December 13 might be even better. The dazzling Geminid meteor shower should intensify from late evening until around 2 a.m. when the radiant point is still high in the sky. The radiant point is near the star Castor in the constellation Gemini.

December 13^th: Day 347 of the gregorian calendar.
History: In 1920, the first measurement of a stellar diameter (Betelgeuse) was done by Francis Pease using an interferometer at Mt. Wilson.
Observations: First Quarter at 14h (UTC). The Moon is at Apogee at 9h (UTC).

December 14^th: Day 348 of the gregorian calendar.
History: In 1546, Tycho Brahe was born. He gave Kepler his first observational job at Uraniborg. Brahe's very precise measurements of Mars' apparent motion would allow Kepler to infere the Laws that have his name.
In 1962, the american probe Mariner 2 reaches Venus and becomes the first successful interplanetary mission.
Observations: Jupiter 2ºS of the Moon at 2h (UTC). Uranus 7ºS of the Moon at 6h (UTC).

December 15^th: Day 349 of the gregorian calendar.
History: In 1911, Roald Amundsen describes on his diary the  strange behaviour of the Sun at the South Pole.

In 1965, Gemini 6 and 7 make their first rendez-vous between two ships orbiting Earth.
In 1970, the soviet probe Venera 7 lands on Venus and becomes the first probe to make transmissions on the planet's surface. This transmission lasted only  23 minutes but it's data transmission showed that pressure at the surface was 90 times bigger than on Earth and that surface temperature was about  475 ºC.
In 1984 the mission  Vega 1  was launched.
Observations: Use the night to learn about the Orion constellation.

December 16^th: Day 350 of the gregorian calendar.
History: Birthday, in 1857, of Edward Emerson Barnard, the discoverer of the Barnard star.

In 1965 the probe Pioneer 6 was launched into a solar orbita between Earth and Venus.
In 2000, using the science data recovered from the Galileo probe, a 20 de Maio, scientist from JPL anounce evidence of a salty ocean 200km under the surface of  Ganymede, the biggest moon of the  Solar System.
  Observations:

December 17^th: Day 351 of the gregorian calendar.
Observations: In 1966, Saturn's moon Epimetheus was discovered by  Richard L. Walker, and afterwards lost for almost  12 years.

December 18^th: Day 352 of the gregorian calendar.
History: In 1966, Saturn's moon Epimetheus was discovered by  Richard L. Walker, and afterwards lost for almost  12 years.

December 19^th: Day 353 of the gregorian calendar.
History: In 1972, the last crewed lunar mission,  Apollo 17, returned back to Earth.

Observations:

December 20^th: Day 354 of the gregorian calendar.
History: In 1904,  Mt. Wilson's Solar Observatory started to work.

In 1996, Carl Sagan died. He was considered by many the greatest all time Astronomy promoter.
Observations: Mercury in inferior conjunction at 1h (UTC).

December 21^st: Day 355 of the gregorian calendar.
History: In 1968, mission Apollo 8 was launched and  William A. Anders, James A. Lovell Jr. and Frank Borman became the first human beings to not feel Earth's gravity as major gravitational force.

This missions  goal was the close observation of the Moon and of it's "Dark Side".
In 1984 the soviet probe Vega 2 was launched.
Observations: Full Moon at 8h (UTC). Total Eclipse of the Moon at 08h visible at moonset in Western Europe (UTC).

After a few months EAAE Monthly is back with news about what has been happening on EAAE.

This month the highlight news go to the 15th EAAE-IAU Summer School  that was organised in Germany under the coordination of .

On the "First Astronomical Observations" section this month we talk about Jupiter.

This month's challenge for "Advanced Astronomical Observations" is the Double Cluster in the Perseus constellation.

On the "Astronomy Software Tools" section we present the Solar Calculator website from NOAA.

We also have an crossword puxzzle and word puzzle in Students Corner and for this month we have selected a beautiful astronomical picture of Comet Hartley as it passed in front of the field of the Double Cluster .

We wish you all clear skies during the next month.

The EAAE Webteam

Also known as NGC 2024, the Flame Nebula has a beautifull reddish colour due to the glow of  hydrogen atoms at the edge of the giant  Orion molecular cloud complex some 1,500 light-years away. The hydrogen atoms have been ionized, or stripped of their electrons, and glow as the atoms and electrons recombine. The ionization of the hydrogen atoms is due to Alnitak Alnitak (ζ Ori), the easternmost star in the Belt of Orion, that shines energetic ultraviolet light into the Flame and this knocks electrons away from the great clouds of hydrogen gas, and also  to  a cluster of hot, young stars, that the central dark lane of absorbing interstellar dust  hides from optical telescopes. This cluster of hot, young stars, can be seen at infrared wavelengths through the obscuring dust.

2010 - EAAE - European Association for Astronomy Education. Edited by Alexandre Costa. The contents of the links were active at the date of the publication of this newsletter, but some of them cannot be taken as granted to work in the future. Please don't answer to this e-mail.

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