  Search bayweekly.com Search Goggle  Volume 14, Issue 49 ~
December 7 - December 13, 2006  Sky Watch  by J. Alex Knoll
Winter’s Dark, Early Nights  While the year’s earliest sunset is
already past, these cold nights are still getting longer.
Thursday’s waning gibbous moon rises in the northeast a few
hours after sunset. December 7th marks the earliest sunset of
the year, nine seconds shy of 4:46. While winter solstice
December 21 is the shortest day of the year, Earth’s elliptical
orbit around the sun skews the earliest sunset and the latest
sunrise, which isn’t until January 5.  Each evening the moon
rises more than an hour later. Over the course of the week it
passes four of the familiar constellations of the zodiac,
Gemini, Cancer, Leo and Virgo in pre-dawn skies Wednesday.
While these pairings may make it easier to locate a
constellation, it’s hard to compete when the moon passes close
to a planet, as it does this week. Around 9:30pm Saturday the
moon crests the northeast horizon with Saturn three deg