Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Christmas Day, Tuesday, December 25th. The Sun will rise at 8:18. It’ll be up for 8 hours and 48 minutes, setting at 5:07. The Moon, 3 days past full, will rise at 8:49 this evening.

The Christmas star this year is Venus, seen this morning in the southeast if we are privileged enough to have clear skies this morning. Rising about 6:30 this morning we also have Jupiter, the second brightest planet after Venus. It might be high enough to spot by 7 this morning, in the southeast also, but near the horizon and to the left of Venus. The two extremely close conjunctions of these two planets in 3 and again in 2 BC are my favorite candidate for the appearances of the Star of Bethlehem that the Magi saw. One of the great things about the morning sky this time of year is that the stars out are those of April evenings and the seed catalogs I’m getting in the mail, make the promise that winter, only four days old will pass.

The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

The Christmas morning sky at 7 a.m. looking to the south-southeast. Created using Stellarium.