December 29, 2024: Sirius, the night’s brightest star, is south at midnight as the calendar year ends. It is part of a large group of bright stars near Orion.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 7:18 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 4:28 p.m. CST. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.
Sirius Twinkles Wildly
During the next several days, Sirius, the night’s brightest star, is south at the midnight hour. The star rises in the east-southeast nearly 150 minutes after sundown. When the star is low in the sky, it twinkles wildly from air currents dispersing the starlight into its component colors. The effect is striking through a binocular.
The Dog Star seems to trail Orion, distinguished by the three stars of the Hunter’s belt. Reddish Betelgeuse is on one shoulder, while Rigel marks a knee. Sirius is part of Canis Major, the Greater Dog, while Procyon belongs to Canis Minor. During the night, the stars seem to shift westward, reaching their highest points in the southern sky.
As January progresses, these stars appear earlier and are higher in the eastern sky after nightfall. At Chicago’s latitude, Sirius rises at sunset on January 28. By mid-February it is higher in southeastern sky after sundown.
Sirius South at Midnight
With New Year’s revelry occurring, Sirius is south around the midnight hour. It is about one-third of the way from the southern horizon to overhead. Do not confuse it with bright Jupiter, high in the southwest, or Mars, high in the southeast. For sky watchers at the western edges of time zones, Sirius’ southern appearance occurs after midnight at the cusp of a new year.
Watch the western procession of the bright stars of winter. If you are celebrating around midnight, look for Sirius and the bright stars in the region. Happy New Year!
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