Howdy Star Gazers and Happy Winter Solstice.
My name is Drew and I'll be your guide to the
night sky for the week of December the 21st to
the 27th. I know I said in our most recent episode
that we'd be taking a break for the month of
December, but I just couldn't help but check
in one more time before the new year. And, since
it's the holiday season, I wanted to mention
a little gift of sorts that I've been working
on for the past few months. More on that in a
moment. I hope everyone has been enjoying the
dark, clear skies of December. I was doing some
traveling recently, as I often do this time of
year, and I visited Nashville and Memphis, two
cities I've never explored, despite them being
just a few states over. We had gloomy, cloudy
skies the entire time I was on the road, with
the exception of one evening when the waning
supermoon hung low over the Nashville skyline,
looking icy and massive. Since arriving back
home, we've had wonderfully clear skies, albeit
very cold and windy weather for the southeast.
It's nice to see the familiar form of Orion dominating
the night sky once again. along with bright Jupiter
and the stillness of good seeing. As I mentioned
in the introduction, if you're listening on the
release date, today is the winter solstice, the
moment when the sun reaches its southernmost
point in the sky. Astronomically speaking, this
is the instant when Earth's axial tilt leans
the northern hemisphere most directly away from
the sun. The result is the shortest day and longest
night of the year. From here on out, the days
begin to lengthen again, slowly at first, but
inevitably. For thousands of years, cultures
around the world have marked this moment as a
symbolic rebirth of light. For stargazers, the
solstice brings a gift of its own, long early
nights and crisp winter skies. Even casual observers
stepping outside after dinner can catch some
of the most iconic sights in the sky. If you
look toward the southeast after sunset, you'll
be greeted by Orion, rising into prominence.
Orion's three belt stars form an easy visual
anchor, and hanging beneath them is the Orion
Nebula, one of the finest deep -sky objects visible
to the naked eye from dark locations and absolutely
stunning through binoculars or small telescope.
Just above Orion sits Taurus the Bull, home to
the Pleiades star cluster, also known as the
Seven Sisters. This tight, glittering cluster
is an ideal holiday target, bright, compact,
and unmistakable. Binoculars really bring it
to life, revealing dozens of stars packed into
a small patch of sky. Following Orion across
the sky is Canis Major, marked by Sirius, the
brightest star in the night sky. Sirius flashes
low in the southern sky, often twinkling wildly
as its light passes through thick layers of atmosphere,
a beacon that's hard to miss once you know where
to look. Turning northward, the Big Dipper rides
low in the evening but climbs higher as the night
goes on. serving as a reliable guidepost for
finding Polaris, the North Star. Winter is a
great time to revisit these familiar landmarks
and notice how their positions shift over the
course of the night. The moon this week cooperates
nicely for stargazing, offering darker skies
for much of the holiday period, perfect for spontaneous
backyard observing sessions between gatherings,
travel, or quiet evenings at home. So whether
you're bundled up in the cold with a telescope,
stepping outside with binoculars, or simply looking
up while taking out the trash, this Solstice
Week invites you to slow down and reconnect with
the sky. The nights are long, the stars are bright,
and the Sun, though at its weakest, has already
begun its return. This Solstice Week also gives
us a few planetary highlights. Quiet, steady
lights that stand apart from the stars, and reward
even casual holiday stargazing. The most commanding
of these is Jupiter. You can't miss it. Rising
in the early evening and climbing higher as the
night goes on, Jupiter shines brilliantly among
the winter constellations, outshining everything
around it. Through binoculars, you can usually
spot its four largest moons lined up like tiny
beads of light. With a small telescope, Jupiter
resembles a miniature solar system all its own,
complete with dark cloud bands stretching across
its face. Lower in the sky during the early evening
is Saturn, glowing with a soft golden hue. It
doesn't demand attention the way Jupiter does,
but it rewards patience. Even small telescopes
reveal its rings, and there's something especially
fitting about seeing Saturn during the holidays.
a planet that feels slow, ancient, and deliberate,
quietly keeping time as the year comes to a close.
In the early morning hours, sharp -eyed observers
may also catch Mercury low near the horizon before
sunrise. It's a challenging target, but spotting
it feels like a small victory in the glow of
dawn. The moon plays a supportive role later
this week, returning to the evening sky as a
thin crescent. Its modest presence means darker
skies for much of the holiday period, perfect
for stargazing without moonlight washing out
the stars. And while meteor activity is quieter
now than earlier in December, patient observers
may still catch an occasional Ircid meteor streaking
out from the northern sky. Brief flashes of motion
in an otherwise calm, frozen cosmos. I wanted
to make a quick side note for anyone who's enjoyed
some of the bigger ideas we explored on Star
Trails over the past month. Subjects like time
dilation, interstellar travel, near -light speed
propulsion, and the very human challenge of communicating
with something truly alien. If those topics lit
up your brain like they lit up mine, you may
want to check out the novel Project Hail Mary
by Andy Weir. Weir is best known for The Martian,
which took orbital mechanics, chemistry, and
sheer stubborn problem -solving and turned them
into a survival story. Project Hail Mary pushes
those ideas much farther out beyond the solar
system while still grounding its science and
real physics and real consequences. What makes
the book especially fun for science -minded readers
is how it treats big concepts not as abstract
equations, but as lived experiences. Relativity
isn't something that happens on a chalkboard,
and communication across species isn't solved
with universal translators, but with patience,
logic, and creativity. So, if you've enjoyed
November's deep dives into cosmic timescales,
lonely distances between stars, and the strange
limits imposed by physics, Project Hail Mary
feels like a natural companion piece. It's science
fiction that respects science, and it's a fun
page -turner. And if you've never read The Martian,
grab that one, too. It's also excellent. Some
listeners may recall I was planning to read Terrence
Dickinson's Night Watch some months back as part
of a little Star Trails book club idea, and sadly
I haven't read it yet. Just tonight I pulled
it off the shelf and hope to begin scanning it
soon. And finally, it is the holidays, so I wanted
to extend a gift of sorts to listeners. And it's
a little meta, but hopefully some of you will
enjoy it. You've probably noticed that I've been
using more music in recent episodes. A lot of
this music is original, and some folks have asked
about it. In the past few weeks, I've been preparing
some of these tracks for release. This culminated
in assembling three albums worth of spacey music.
You may have heard some of these songs in recent
episodes. Some of it you'll hear in upcoming
ones. And some of it is just for fun. So if you
like planetarium music, or music inspired by
artists like Tangerine Dream, Tycho, or Brian
Eno, check out my new project, Liminal Horizon.
There will be a link in the show notes, or you
can just visit liminalhorizon .bandcamp .com.
You can listen to these tracks absolutely for
free right there on the web page, or in their
app. If you want to download the tracks, drop
me a note on our website, startrails .show, and
I'll send you a code you can use to download
them for free. But really, just pulling up the
Bandcamp page on a mobile device or computer
will get the job done. This is music designed
for stargazing, driving out to a dark site, or
for background ambiance while studying, writing,
or coding. The three collections of songs are
thematically different. A Line Between Worlds
features tunes dedicated to wonder and awe. The
Continuum in Motion features slower, more contemplative
tracks. And my favorite, The Passage Through
Shadow, features darker songs with harder beats
and aggressive sounds. That's going to do it
for this quick holiday episode. I'll see you
in the new year. Links are in the show notes.
Until we meet again beneath the stars, clear
skies everyone.