Caoimhín's Content

In this, the final Irish language video of the year, we take a look at the nights of Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Thanks to “Nollaig” being used for both December and Christmas in Irish, saying “Merry Christmas” or “Nollaig Shona” at any time of the month makes even more sense, as it could equally be “Merry December”. As such, Merry December to you all, and as this Irish that I will be putting up this year, and for that reasons, Happy New Year’s to you all as well.

We will begin by looking here at sky for Christmas Night. If you are staying up late on Christmas Night, just like the winter solstice, it is a great night to look at the planets. Venus will appear very early in the night, as soon as the night begins, as early as 4 o’clock, truly visible by just 4:30. Venus will be visible in the sky as it darkens, with Saturn and Jupiter coming soon after. Mars will rise a little later in the night. Especially on Christmas Eve, if you are going to bed early in the night so that you can get up early in the morning, Mars will still be there. Mercury will be there at sunrise as well, along with the Moon. It’s a good thing that the Moon isn’t there for most of the night on Christmas Night, as this keeps the sky a little bit darker, especially if you are in the city. the morning sky will still be quite dark at 7:30 in the morning, but Mercury is very low in the sky. If there are any trees or anything like that around you, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to see Mercury.

There should still be a few meteors falling through the sky on Christmas Night, but the majority of the meteor showers are over by then. The December Leonis Minorids are still active, but their highest point is past, they peaked on the 19th. Even when this meteor shower is at its peak we’re looking at a zenith hourly rate of just 5 meteors and that’s not a big number, there won’t be many meteors to be seen at that rate. Regardless, with a little more darkness, it will be a little easier to see the stars and coming into winter, especially here in Ireland, the nights are a lot colder. If there is frost around you in the morning, that’s a sign that the sky was clear, without any clouds, the night before. When the weather is very cold, the water freezes out of the sky, down onto the ground, that’s where the frost comes from. If the temperature is higher than zero during the day, there will be humidity in the air, there will be a little water in the air flying around, but when the temperature falls at night, that water falls out of the sky. When the air is dry like that and there aren’t any clouds, viewing conditions are almost perfect. The nights in winter are both a lot longer and often a lot clearer, but they are also lot colder. When the sky is clear with no clouds to hold in the heat, the temperature drops even faster.

However, if you are out in the countryside, you may still not see much of the Milky Way. Looking at this sky without the light pollution, the Milky Way is there, but around the winter solstice is the worst time to look at the Milky Way because the middle of the Milky Way is directly behind the Sun. We can’t see the center at all, but still the edge of the Milky Way is visible. the outer portion of the Milky Way is certainly fainter, but it is still visible with the naked eye. With no Moon in the sky it will be a little bit easier to see that fainter portion of our galaxy, and the Andromeda Galaxy as well. the Andromeda Galaxy is high nice and early in the night. Even with the naked eye you should see a little disc or a sort of cloudy region if you are looking in the right location. That sort of cloud of light is visible up in the direction of the constellation of Andromeda and the constellation of Cassiopeia. Staying out in the countryside and coming up to midnight, the constellation of Orion, or An Bodach, will reach its highest in the sky. You will be able to see the Sword of Orion much more easily out in the countryside, and again, without the Moon, it will be a little easier. The nebulae around Orion’s Sword should also be at their most observable, even with just binoculars.

Pushing ahead towards morning proper out in the countryside, we should be able to see Mercury for a slightly longer timespan. At almost 8 o’clock Mercury will be right on the edge of visibility. You might be able to see Mercury at 8 o’clock, but it will still be fairly hard, at about 7:40, the sky is still nice and dark, and Mercury is as bright as Mercury is able to be from our position here in Ireland. Mercury is never very bright or high in the sky, so have to take our chances, even if their slim. Even if there isn’t much chance, there is a chance that Mercury will be there to be seen. Moving from Christmas Day till sunrise on New Years Day, Mercury will still be up but it will be after getting lower in the sky again, making it even more difficult to catch.

Staying out in the countryside, we’re going to look at the sky for the night of New Years Eve, particularly for midnight. It is common for people stay up until midnight on the night of the New Year to sort of celebrate the New Year coming anyway, but it also makes a good excuse to look at stars. The antihelion point may still radiate some meteors, but not many meteors come from the antihelion point. That radiant contributes to the normal background rate of meteors that are always there, the couple of meteors you could see any night. Even if there isn’t a proper meteor shower going on, we’re able to see Mars at midnight, very orange looking in a clear sky. If you are out in the countryside on this night, there won’t be any Moon to interfere, even close to the morning the Moon won’t be there to put more light in the sky.

If you’re up until midnight you will have a fantastic view. You will be able to look for Uranus. I don’t know if you’ll be able to see Uranus but Uranus will be up to be looked for. If you are trying to see Uranus, it is up there, if you have a telescope you’ll have a much better chance of spotting it. As the Sunn sets for the last night of 2024, Venus and Jupiter will be visible as they were for the whole month of December and Saturn will be coming out even at 5:40. The sky will darken nice and quick once the Sun goes down. As usual, everything is better if you are out in the countryside, but even from the city, a city like Cork City anyway, there is plenty to see. Pegasus is still nice and high to the south when the sky first gets dark, and a little bit later Mars will be coming up. Midnight for the night of the New Year here in Cork City swill bring the the Seven Sisters or the Pleiades high into the South, but only about two or three of them will be visible to the naked eye. Mars will still be there, Jupiter will still be there, both very clear and easy to see high in the sky. Orion with Orion’s Belt and Orion’s Sword will still be due South around midnight, even if some of the details are harder to see with light pollution.

I said the exact same thing about the night of the winter solstice and Christmas Night, it’s a good time of the year, this year anyway, to look at the planets. There are different planets visible at different times of the night and at midnight the planets will be nice and high in the sky, along with Orion. This puts a few of the most famous objects in the sky visible at the same time, the brightest star Sirius, the biggest planet Jupiter and the Red Planet. Mars isn’t the biggest planet or even the closest planet to us, Venus is a little bit closer to us than Mars, but still, it is among the most popular. Those are all up to be seen and the Milky Way is in the sky, even if we can’t see it from the city. That light of the Milky Way is still crossing the sky, just behind the W shape of Cassiopeia.

That is Christmas Night and New Years Eve. We will be looking ahead into January over the next few of days on this site, so do stick around for that. If you enjoyed this piece, make sure that you press the button that says you liked it. If you like this kind of content then make sure you subscribe to my website and my YouTube channel. Thank you for reading, and I’m sure I’ll see you back here again.