Skywatch Line for Monday and Tuesday, December 29 and 30, 2025, written by Alan French
This is Dudley Observatory’s Skywatch Line for Monday and Tuesday, December 29 and 30, 2025, written by Alan French.
The Sun rises at 7:26 A.M. on Wednesday and sets at 4:30 P.M. On Thursday it rises at 7:26 A.M. and sets at 4:30 P.M.
The Moon reached last quarter this past Saturday afternoon and is now moving toward full, so a waxing gibbous Moon will dominate the evening sky. On Monday at 6 P.M. the Moon, 74% sunlit, will be toward the southeast and 58 degrees high. I have always found the Moon quite photogenic around this phase and have gotten some nice shots with my “super-zoom” camera.
People also get nice lunar shots holding a cell phone up to a telescope’s eyepiece. The Moon will be due south at 7:36 P.M., 65 degrees high, and will not set until 3:09 A.M. Tuesday.
Tuesday evening at 6 P.M. will find the Moon 53 degrees above the east southeastern horizon its visible face 83 ½% in sunlight. It will transit at 8:33 P.M. and will not set until 4:31 A.M. Wednesday. The Moon will reach full early Saturday afternoon. The January full Moon is traditionally known as the Wolf Moon.
If the skies relent and allow some views there are nice passes of the Chinese space station, Tiangong, over our area on both nights. When it passes high in our skies Tiangong reaches magnitude -1.9.
Monday night’s pass will take place under dark skies just before 6 P.M. Look for Tiangong coming up from the western horizon at 5:56 P.M. It will pass close by Altair, the brightest star in Aquila, the Eagle, 20 degrees above the western horizon, just after 5:57. It will then pass through the little constellation of Delphinus, the Dolphin, and head across the southern sky toward the Great Square of Pegasus. By 5:59 the space station will be approaching Pegasus and at 6:00 P.M. passing close to the Moon. Less than a minute after passing the Moon Tiangong will move into the Earth’s shadow and fade from view.
Tuesday’s pass of Tiangong is earlier and under twilight tinged skies. The space station will follow essentially the same path, just roughly an hour earlier and 3 degrees farther above the southern horizon. On Thursday look for Tiangong rising from the western horizon at 4:57 P.M. Twilight may make it difficult to spot when low, but it will pass close to Altair at 4:59:35 (HH:MM:SS) and should be easy to spot when that high. At 5 P.M. it will pass by Delphinus and by 5:01 be headed through Pegasus. Tiangong will be passing near the Moon at 5:02 and by 5:04 headed down to the eastern horizon.