Cold Moon rising: If skies are clear, Earth’s satellite will shine with a magical glow around Christmas

If local weather permits — and that’s always an astronomical if in this generally overcast season — the night sky on and around Christmas will shine with a magical, silver-white glow.

Remember the mythical star that supposedly lit up the Middle Eastern night sky a little over 2,000 years ago, leading the way to a profound happening in Bethlehem? Well, this isn’t that.

Go ahead and feast your holiday spirit upon heavenly light anyway, because it certainly is a cosmic occurrence worth admiring: the Cold Moon.

Today the moon is what’s called “new,” that is, invisible. That’s because it’s positioned between Earth and the sun. During daytime it’s lost in the sun’s glare, and when the sun sets in early evening, the moon immediately follows it below the horizon.

Everything will be different in a couple of weeks. The moon will have traveled halfway along its 29.5-day orbital path around the Earth, arriving virtually opposite the sun from our perspective. When the moon rises in the east, the sun sets in the west, ceding the night sky to moonlight.

Moonrise will shift later and later throughout December by nearly a whole hour each day. Over on the other side of the sky, the sun will reliably set just after 4:30 p.m.

(Want the precise times? On Christmas Eve, the moon rises at 2:26 p.m. and the sun sets at 4:31 p.m. On Christmas Day, the moon rises at 3:07 p.m. and the sun sets at 4:32 p.m. On Dec. 26, the moon rises at 3:59 p.m. and the sun sets at 4:32 p.m.)

Dec. 26 is the actual date of the full moon, so that’s the night a really round orb will soar high — but slowly — across the sky. The moon won’t set again until the next morning at nearly 9 a.m. Clouds willing, you might be able to enjoy some super space shine on Boxing Day.

Meandering moon

When objects in the sky draw close together, it’s called a conjunction. Conjunctions can make for interesting and beautiful viewing.

The meandering moon will share the spotlight with some planetary co-stars in December and early January.

Dec. 17: Saturn. The moon’s visibility will have increased from zero (“new”) to 30 percent as it pairs up with the famously ringed planet. To the naked eye, Saturn looks like a bright yellow star. With standard binoculars it might appear a little oblong. It takes powerful binoculars — more likely a telescope — for that oblong shape to resolve into a slightly flattened globe surrounded by a horizontal ring system.

Dec. 19: Neptune. Like Saturn, Neptune is what’s called a gas giant, but at 2.8 billion miles from our eyes, it’s impossible to see without assistance. (Neptune is the farthest official planet from the sun in our system of eight, since astronomers demoted tiny Pluto to “dwarf planet” in 2006.) If you’ve got powerful binoculars or a telescope, tonight’s the night to try picking out the blue-green dot to the upper right of the moon.

Dec. 21-22: Jupiter. Jupiter is king of the gas giants and the closest to Earth. It’s the most visible, often appearing conspicuously bright and sometimes even too bulky in the sky to pass as a star. Jupiter should be gleaming brightly, just beside the moon, on Dec. 21 and 22. If you do own binoculars — even low-powered ones — dig them out to look at this spectacular planet. Jupiter is beribboned with horizontal weather patterns, studded with a whirling red spot and surrounded by four large moons (in addition to dozens of small ones), all of which can be seen with minimal optical assistance.

Jan. 8: Venus. Venus is almost Earth’s twin. It’s the same size (small and rocky) and in the same neighborhood (relatively near the sun). But its surface conditions are hellishly hot at nearly 900 degrees. That’s caused by a runaway greenhouse-gas atmospheric cycle. The choking cloud cover also contributes to Venus’ remarkable brilliance. (Some uninformed observers have been known to assume it’s an airplane or spaceship.) This will be a morning conjunction, as Venus rises at 5:08 a.m. and the moon at 5:21 a.m.

Meteor shower

Also visible — if the sky is clear — in the next few days is the Geminid Meteor Shower.

“Geminids are so bright that this should be a good show,” said Jim Todd, the director of Space Science Education at OMSI. “You can see the Geminids anywhere in the sky and from anywhere on Earth. … The Geminids are often bright and intensely colored.”

The radiant point of the Geminid Meteor Shower is the constellation Gemini, rising in the east-northeast at about 5:15 p.m. Best viewing will be 10 p.m. onward into early morning. The American Meteor Society says as many as 100 meteors per hour, or even more, may be visible. (Seasoned meteor watchers — especially in the city, near light pollution — know to take such claims with grains of salt.)

The Geminids peak Dec. 13-14 but may be active all the way through Dec. 24.