By TIM O'MEILIA

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Monday, December 24, 2007

The star of Bethlehem is 2,000-plus years past, but the moon and Mars will do a credible stand-in tonight.

On Christmas Eve, the bright, huge, nearly full moon will take its highest track across the night sky until 2023.

Its reddish-gold traveling companion, Mars, will be at its biggest, brightest and closest to Earth until 2016 (though not as close as in 2003), a mere 55 million miles away.

The couple will brighten the sky so much that Santa won't need Rudolph's guiding nose.

"Ta da. On Christmas Eve, it (Mars) will officially be in opposition, which means that it will be directly opposite the Earth from the sun and thus will be in the sky all night long from sunset to sunrise," said Jack Horkheimer, host of the PBS show Star Gazer and director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium.

The pair will cross the sky together and will be almost directly overhead from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Saturday at 1:08 a.m., by the way, was winter solstice, the official start of winter. Put on a sweater. Call your brother up North and ask if he's put on his snow tires yet.

Then walk the dog after dinner. Breathe in the nearly cool, almost crisp, less than 70-degree night air. Look up. See the cosmos' own Christmas lights.

Source: http://www.palmbeachpost.com