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around the sun. As we get closer to Jupiter, this world will rise sooner after dark and will be out for a longer period of time at night. When the Earth finally passes in between the sun and Jupiter in early December, Jupiter will rise around sunset and set around sunrise. It'll be jovial, seeing this giant planet out all night long on December nights.
• But let's not forget about Castor and Pollux, whose moment of glory also comes in December. After all, these twin stars mark the radiant point of the December Geminid meteor shower, one of the finest showers of the year for the Northern Hemisphere.
• EarthSky's meteor shower guide for 2012

• Castor and Pollux depict the heads of the mythological twins, the sons of Zeus and Leda. The two stars are similar in brightness, though Pollux is actually the brighter of the two. Castor is magnitude 1.58 and Pollux is magnitude 1.16. (The brighter a star, the lower its magnitude - aka apparent magnitude - value.) These two stars have been labeled as twins throughout history. The Arabs referred to them as the "two peacocks" and the Hindus as the "twin deities."
• Castor is the fainter of two Twin stars
• Pollux: Brightest star of the Twins
• If you are awake during the early morning hours, step outside and look for the twin stars Castor and Pollux, the planets Venus and Jupiter and the waning crescent moon.