Night Skies - Did you know?

A new dark skies sign is available at the Garner State Park Visitor Center

What’s going on in our night sky this December?

🌠 Meteor Showers: The Geminids Meteor Shower peaks around December 13–14, producing up to 150 meteors per hour. Meteors radiate from the constellation Gemini and are best viewed after 10 PM under dark skies. The Ursids Meteor Shower follows, peaking December 21–22, with about 10 meteors per hour radiating from Ursa Minor, best seen after midnight.

🌕 Moon and Constellation Pairings: Around December 4, the Cold Moon (a supermoon) rises and appears near Taurus, with bright stars like Aldebaran visible. On December 26, the Moon passes close to Saturn in the evening sky. Throughout the month, the Moon also pairs with Jupiter, Mercury, and stars in Leo and Gemini. The Orion constellation dominates the night sky, rising earlier each evening.

🌝 Full and New Moons: Full Moon: December 4 –Known as the Cold Moon, marking the long, cold nights near the solstice. New Moon: December 20 – Ideal for deep-sky viewing with minimal light interference.

Other phases: Last Quarter on December 11, First Quarter on December 27.

🌅 Sunrise and Sunset Times: December 1: Sunrise at ~6:43 AM, Sunset at ~5:03 PM.

December 31: Sunrise at ~7:08 AM, Sunset at ~5:33 PM. Daylight shortens early in the month, then begins to lengthen after the Winter Solstice on December 21.

🌌 Astronomical Twilight: December 1: Begins ~5:15 AM, ends ~6:30 PM. December 31: Begins ~5:40 AM, ends ~6:55 PM. Assuming the moon is not shining, this is the best time for observing faint stars and deep-sky objects.

🪐 Planets in the evening Sky: Saturn is visible in the southwest after sunset. Uranus and Neptune are present but require binoculars or a telescope. Morning Sky: Jupiter shines brightly in the east before sunrise. Mercury is low on the horizon and best seen during twilight. Mars remains faint and low, not ideal for viewing this month.

You can see a lot with your naked eyes or a set of binoculars.

🔭 Naked-Eye Highlights

Orion Nebula (M42): found in Orion’s Sword below the Belt, this bright emission nebula appears as a faint, glowing patch. It’s one of the most famous star-forming regions in the sky. Pleiades (M45): A stunning open cluster in Taurus, easily visible as a tiny dipper-shaped grouping of blue stars. Best viewed high in the eastern sky during early evening. Hyades Cluster: Another open cluster in Taurus forming a V-shape around Aldebaran. Though Aldebaran isn’t part of the cluster, it adds to the visual beauty. Andromeda Galaxy (M31): The nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way, visible as a faint smudge in the northeast sky under dark conditions.

🔭 Binocular highlights include the Double Cluster (NGC 869 & NGC 884), both neighboring star clusters in Perseus, appearing as twin hazy patches to the naked eye but spectacular through binoculars. Triangulum Galaxy (M33): A faint spiral galaxy near Andromeda. Though challenging with the naked eye, binoculars reveal its soft glow under dark skies.

For more celestial objects to see, check out the back of a the current month's sky map at the Visitor Center.

Look for a "Sky Tour" program given at the park occasionally when the skies are dark, and the weather is good. You might also listen the Sky and Telescope's monthly Sky Tour podcast. A good place to observe the heavens at the park is from the west side of the Excess Vehicle Parking Area that's just north of the Visitors Center. Stay clear of the construction work area on the southeast side.

Garner has a planisphere!

Look for it on the southside of the Visitor Center on the outside of the wall that hides the bathrooms. A planisphere is a rotating star chart that helps you identify stars and constellations visible in the night sky at any given time and date. It’s a classic tool for stargazers, especially useful in places like Garner State Park where dark skies make celestial navigation a joy. Dial in your date and time and have it tell you what stars are in the sky and which constellations are rising, setting, or overhead.

🧭 How It Works: A planisphere consists of two discs: the top disc has a window showing part of the sky, and the bottom disc has a star map. You rotate the discs to align the date and time, and the window reveals the stars and constellations visible overhead. It’s calibrated for a specific latitude range, so make sure yours matches your location (Garner State Park is around 29.7°N).

Leakey Highway Maintenance Center improves their lighting! Way to go TXDOT!!!

If you ever drove into Leakey from the north on US 83 at night, you were greeted by the blinding lights of the Texas Department of Transportation's (TXDOT's) maintenance facility. NOT ANY MORE! THANK YOU to Ms. Ginger Lux, the supervisor there, and others helping her in San Angelo, Austin, and elsewhere, TXDOT is now much more welcoming to visitors in the Frio Canyon. THEY HAVE INSTALLED DOWNLIGHTING on their facility. This makes the light bubble over Leakey and the Frio Canyon north of Garner State Park a bit less intrusive. Leakey TXDOT has more work to do, maybe add downlighting to their flagpole. They can be an example to all the TEXAS TXDOT facilities! The towns of Leakey and Concan both still have plenty of lighting challenges to overcome and now... TXDOT is showing the way!

Our skies aren't as dark as they used to be.

New neighbors, new businesses install lights to light up their properties and light up the whole Frio Canyon in the process. From the top of Old Baldy, you can see light domes of Uvalde, Hondo, Bandera, Kerrville, and yes, even Concan and Leakey. Texas towns have their light bubbles. Do us all a favor, let them know, "Illuminate only what is needed with only as much warm light as is needed." If you see lights shining upward or too bright, let's do better. If you want to continue to see stars, tell them you want and expect darker skies. We can make our skies darker.

Count the number of stars in the Little Dipper. If you can see all seven, you have a dark sky. If you can only see the end of the little Dipper's handle, the North Star (Polaris), you have a lit-up city sky.

Help work to making our skies darker.

We want to make Garner an International Dark Skies Park. Unfortunately, it isn't currently dark enough. It takes some work, a real campaign. Educating our visitors, neighbors, students, businesses, and government officials; adding light shields; updating light fixtures; measuring, recording, and reporting light readings and other progress steps; getting the right color LED's; seeing what we can do to make the skies dark again. Want to get involved in Dark Skies? Use the "Contact us" form at the bottom of the home page or call 830-232-5999.

Here is a YouTube link to an interesting presentation on keeping our skies dark in west Texas given by Steven Hummel to the Houston Astronomical Society members. It shows how the National Park Service is mapping our dark skies and measuring not just the darkness overhead but the intensity and spectrum of light all around that is being added to that of the stars, moon, planets, and weather amounts. Also note that the oil and gas industry has reduced its foot print in the Pecos area. Some installations reduced their sky glow 98%. Can we do this in the Frio Canyon as well?

You can help educate others to keep our skies dark.

Spread the word, set an example. Shine light only when and where you need it. Only shine as much as you need. Use the warmest color light to minimize light scattering. If light is needed for security or emergency purposes, use video or motion activated lighting.

Do we really need a blinding flood light lighting the heavens at every barn, parked car, business sign, steeple, or flag?

Here are a few links to answer this question:

The International Dark Sky Association's (IDA's) webpage of outreach materials.

https://darksky.org/resources/

DarkSky Texas (IDA's Texas chapter)

https://darkskytexas.org/common-sense-solutions-resources/

Hill Country Alliance webpage on preserving the night skies

https://hillcountryalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2021_THC_NightSkies_Paper_FYI.pdf

Night Sky Month

October was Night Sky Month and will be again next year. Check out our 2025 Night Sky poster. Add it to a yearly collection beginning in 2019. Write to info@friendsofgarner.org for poster information.

Friends of Garner has a telescope

While the scope might not be a large spectacular instrument, it generates oohs and ahs when viewing Jupiter, Saturn, or the moon up in the Garner night skies.
Several astronomy clubs come to view the skies above Garner. Check the park's calendars for other star parties, often held on a warm Saturday night around the occurrence of a new moon when skies are at their darkest.

We can offer sessions to let members get familiar with this and other telescopes. After a checkout, take the scope home or to a campsite, host a park star party, or to outreach events outside the park.

friends of garner state park

We help sustain & improve Garner Park for all generations.