If this holiday was like most, I’m betting there was a telescope under the tree for some child or adult for Christmas 2021.

I thought I would close the year by listing some telescope-worthy targets to point that scope toward during some clear evenings.

A warning though. Anytime anyone gets a telescope or any astronomical accessory for Christmas we almost always have a string of cloudy nights! The more high-performing and expensive the scope is, the longer the clouds stick around.

But the next clear evenings will offer up some nice attractions for a small telescope.

For hard-hitting first impressions, the moon should be one of the first targets of any small telescope. It’s the closest celestial body to us and just far enough away so as to make most of its surface details invisible without the magnification offered by a telescope.

But you’ll have to wait a little past Christmas for the moon to be conveniently located in the evening sky again. The moon is a waning crescent in the dawn sky now ahead of new moon on Jan. 2. It will be Tuesday, Jan. 4 before most folks notice a slim crescent moon in the west after sunset and the waxing moon will climb higher and its phase will grow for the next several evenings after then.

As far as seeing the most interesting details on the moon through your scope, avoid the full moon which next occurs on Jan. 17 because the full moon shows few shadows. It’s best to observe the first quarter moon on Jan. 9 or on a night on either side of that date. At first quarter the moon appears as a “half moon” and the transition line between the moon’s sunlit and shadowed portions, a line called the terminator, centrally bisects the face of the moon. Along the terminator, the sun is just rising on the moon and appears low in the moon’s sky. That makes the moon’s rugged craters and mountains cast long shadows, making those features stand out in bold relief in your telescope views.

While you’re waiting for the moon to reappear in the evening sky, check out the bright planets that are present right now right after sundown.

Planets Venus, Saturn and Jupiter are strung out in a row in the southwestern evening sky as soon as it gets dark.

It’s best to observe Venus with your telescope very soon because the second planet from the sun is rapidly moving toward conjunction with the sun and will soon be very tough to observe. Venus is very bright and very low as darkness falls in the southwestern sky so you’ll need a location with no horizon obstructions toward the southwest when locating Venus. It appears as a tiny slim crescent in the telescope now because its “inner planet” status, along with Mercury, means that its orbit is entirely within Earth’s orbit. This makes Venus undergo phases just like the moon. Jump on Venus in the next few evenings with your telescope as it’s getting lower in the southwest each night.

Saturn is the dimmer, yellowish object in the southwest evening sky to the upper left of Venus. Saturn is perhaps the best object for anyone to observe through any small telescope. Saturn’s wide flat ring encircling the planet starts to become visible in telescopes magnifying at least 30X and larger scopes with higher magnifications offer an extremely memorable view of the planet with its rings. Saturn’s largest moon Titan is also visible near the planet in the telescope view.

Jupiter is bright and is the highest of the evening planet trio in the southwestern evening sky right now. A small telescope view will show Jupiter’s cloud bands and up to four of Jupiter’s largest moons which were discovered by Galileo in the early 1600s. The moons appear to shuffle back and forth each night around Jupiter as they orbit the giant planet which lies about ½ billion miles away from us.

The moon can be a convenient guide to finding these three bright planets plus the planet Mercury on some key evenings in early January around 5:45 p.m. if skies are clear on those dates.

A slim, low crescent moon will appear to the left of Venus on Jan. 3 and that same evening Mercury will hang close above the moon. Binoculars may help you spot Mercury and Venus. The next night, Jan. 4, a fatter crescent moon will appear close to the left of Saturn, and on Jan. 5, again around 5:45 p.m. Jupiter is to the upper right of the moon.

Looking toward later in 2022, telescope owners need to wish hard for clear skies on the night of May 15.  Late that Sunday evening, the full moon will plunge fully into Earth’s shadow and we will have a total lunar eclipse. The eastern United States sees all of it, start to finish weather permitting.

If you have a question about astronomy, send it to Backyard Universe P.O. Box 297, Stedman, NC 28391 or email johnnyhorne937@gmail.com