Rishi Shah

As it darkens, the night skies of this month present the bewitching beauty of the heavens peppered with pretty planets, scintillating stars and condescending constellations. The effulgent elusive planet Mercury would be mostly out of sight this month, due to its proximity to Sun. It would be lost in solar glare. The romantic planet Venus would be visible vivaciously varnished briefly in eastern sky before sunrise. Both Mercury and conspicuously coruscating Venus would be voyaging voraciously through the starry expanse of constellation Libra (scales), Scorpius (scorpion) and Ophiuchus (serpent bearer). The red planet Mars could be marveled in southeastern sky after sunset.
It would be marching across the sky through the star-field of V-shaped constellation Pisces (fishes). It could be perceived well till midnight in southern sky. It would then slowly sink towards the western horizon. The two far-away planets Uranus and Neptune could be astounded avidly together towards the east and west of Mars.

Majestic Jupiter
They would be mingling with stars that dwell in southern sparse section of constellation Aries (ram) and eastern edge of constellation Aquarius (water bearer). The peculiar pentagon asterism and comely circlet belonging boisterously to constellations Cetus (sea monster) and Pisces would be noticed nonchalantly below Uranus and above Neptune respectively.
The majestic planet Jupiter and the raging ring planet Saturn could be relished in southwestern sky after sundown just for a few hours. They would be shimmering splendidly among the stars blithesomely in the western territory of teapot-mimicking constellation Sagittarius (archer). The very rare great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn would take place on 21 December. The two resplendent planets would appear very close to each other. They could even look like one dazzling double planet. These pleasing planetary pair could be applauded in western sky after nightfall. The last such conjunction of this type had been wowed in the year 2000. The distant diminutive dwarf planet Pluto would be pacifying itself phlegmatically to the west of these two gigantic gas giants.
The Geminid meteor shower would exhibit up to 120 multicolored sparkling shooting stars per hour at its peak on the night of 13 till the morning of 14 December. Geminids are allegedly produced by debris left behind by its progenitor that would embody the arcane rocky asteroid 3200 Phaethon with orbital period of simply 1.434 years. It had been detected by British astronomers Simon Green and John Davis in 1982. The shower would generally run from 07 to 17 December every year.
The slender crescent moon would ensure inky skies for good flashy show. The meteors would seemingly emanate from the radiant point lying near the charming star Castor (Kasturi) in Gemini. Castor would be basically 52 light-years away. These meteors burn up in the upper atmosphere, some 100 kilometers above earth’s terrain as they speed at whooping 36 kilometers per second to vaporize as colorful meteors. Castor would be staying in neighborhood of prominent star Pollux (Punarbasu) that would be fairly 34 light-years away.
The minor Ursid meteor shower would be dispensing merely five to ten meteors per hour during its utmost time from the night of 21 till the morning of 22 December. The remnants from periodic comet 8P/Tuttle with orbital period of 13.6 years would be responsible for creating Ursids. The comet was identified by American astronomer Horace Parnell Tuttle in 1858. The shower would be seen annually from 17 to 25 December.

Meteor Showers
The first quarter moon would set soon after dusk leaving murky skies till late night and morning hours for putting-up good meteor shower-show for sky-onlookers. Meteors would ostensibly emerge from the radiant point, which would be recognized near the star Kochab in the circumpolar constellation Ursa Minor (little bear or dipper). Kochab and Pherkad sketch the small dipper asterism. They stand adjacent to the pole star Polaris (Dhruba Tara) and the north celestial pole. Stars Kochab, Pherkad and perplexing Polaris would be purely 180, 487 and 433 light-years away.
The new moon would be marked on 14 December. On this day the last total solar eclipse of 2020 could be witnessed by eclipse-hunters, when the moon would completely block the Sun, revealing the Sun's baffling outer atmosphere dubbed as the corona. The path of totality and hence the total tenebrous solar eclipse could be chased from southern Chile and Argentina. The partial eclipse would be followed from southern South America, the southeastern Pacific Ocean and the southern Atlantic Ocean. However, this eclipse will remain deplorably unseen to us.

Winter Solstice
The December or winter solstice would occur on 21 December 2020. The South Pole of the earth would be tilted toward the Sun, which would have arrived at its southernmost position in the sky and would be hovering directly over the Tropic of Capricorn at 23.44 degrees south latitude. This date would herald the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and similarly the first day of summer (summer solstice) in the Southern Hemisphere.
The full moon would mesmerize the moon-lovers on 30 December. This full moon has been popularly nicknamed as the cold moon because during this time of year the cold winter air would settle in and the nights become long and dark. This moon has also been labeled as the long night’s moon and the moon before Yule. 31 December would bid farewell to the year 2020.
The super-powerful rocket blasted off very recently lofting the new Chinese Chang'e-5 probe (named for the mythical Chinese moon goddess) from the Wenchang Space Center on the southern island province of Hainan.
The craft has been heading towards the moon with mission’s main goal of bringing back the shoveled lunar rocks and soil for helping scientists learn, scrutinize and understand about moon's origins, formation and volcanic activities.
During late November its Lander would collect two kilograms of surface material from previously unexplored area known as Oceanus Procellarum (ocean of storms) consisting of vast lava plain within one lunar day which would be equivalent interestingly to circa 14 earth days. The ascent vehicle with lunar cargo would take off from moon and perform lunar rendezvous and docking-operations for transporting the samples encased inside return-capsule, which would be sophisticatedly programmed and maneuvered for being sent back to earth and alight in northern China's Inner Mongolia region in early December.
The Chinese Lunar Exploration Program has been probably designed to be conducted in four phases. The first task of reaching lunar orbit was undertaken excellently by Chang'e-1 in 2007 and Chang'e-2 in 2010. The second attainment of landing and roving on moon was praiseworthily executed by Chang’e-3 in 2013 and Chang'e-4 in 2019, which was launched in December 2018 and had perched on moon’s far side in January 2019.
The third feat of collecting lunar samples from moon’s near side and consigning them back to earth would be the responsibility of the current Chang'e-5 and future Chang'e-6 missions. The final fourth period planning would incorporate the development of robotic research camps in vicinity of lunar South Pole for facilitating daring crew touch-downs and building lunar outposts.

Space-X
The newly deployed rocket would be capable of dispatching payloads heavier than those from NASA and private rocket firm Space-X for setting up lunar base for establishing permanent manned space stations. Chinese science community has been laudably sharing its achievements acquired by innovations in space technologies with experts world-wide. Ambitious space-faring nation China has spent substantially into its challenging space program for sending humans to the moon soon by 2022.
Japanese Space Agency (JAXA)’s Hayabusa-2 (peregrine falcon-2 in Japanese) has become an awesome asteroid sample-return spacecraft, which took off in 2014 from Tanegashima Space Center located south of Kyushu Island.
It had encountered the near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu with orbital period of scant 474 days in 2018, from which it had gleaned exquisite matter after surveying and reconnoitering for over one year. It left the potentially hazardous asteroid in 2019 and is now en-route earth with those invaluable pristine asteroid specimens in special capsule, which would be parachuted for dramatic drop-delivery at Woomera test range, South Australia on 06 December 2020.

(Shah writes about astronomy)