Christmas Day 2010

This is the sky as seen from Madrid (latitude 40N) at 07:30 local time on December 25^th 2010.

Venus is 25 degrees high in Libra and, at magnitude –4.5, extremely brilliant. With a telescope Venus is seen to be a fat crescent, nearly half full.

Further south and 44 degrees high is Saturn, the ringed planet. It is in Virgo and with its rings only slightly open, just fractionally brighter than Spica.