JT What to Shoot in Carolina's Night Skies December 2025 Edition
- Juxtaposed Tides
- Nov 30
- 7 min read
Updated: Dec 3
December 2025: Supermoon Magic, Meteor Fire, and Mercury at Dawn
December in the Carolinas always feels like a reset. The air sharpens, the humidity drops, and the sky opens itself with a kind of crystalline clarity you rarely get in the warmer months. For stargazers, photographers, and anyone who simply loves the quiet holiness of a night outdoors, December 2025 is the kind of month that reminds you why you bother stepping into the frigid night air at all. It’s rich, it’s dramatic, and it offers a blend of headliner events and subtle treasures that reward every level of sky-gazer.
What follows is a complete guide to December’s most compelling sky moments, and why this month deserves a place on your calendar, your camera roll, and your memory.
The Cold Supermoon and the Pleiades: December’s Signature Moment
The standout event of the month — and arguably one of the signature sky events of the entire year — arrives on the night of December 3 into December 4, when the Cold Moon becomes a Supermoon and sweeps directly across the Pleiades star cluster.
Cold Supermoon: Hold onto your telescopes, folks, because this full moon is the grand finale in the trilogy of supermoons for late 2025! (October, November, December). A supermoon happens when the Moon cozies up to Earth at its closest point in its orbit, known as perigee. This makes our lunar buddy look a smidge larger and brighter—though you might need to squint and use your imagination to really notice the difference!
Highest in the Sky: This is a particularly good viewing opportunity because the Moon will be higher in the sky than any other full moon until 2042.
Best Time to Watch: For the most dramatic view, watch just after moonrise, when the Moon appears larger due to the "Moon illusion" when seen near the horizon. You can check precise moonrise and moonset times for your specific location using tools like the one provided by the Old Farmer's Almanac.
A Supermoon doesn’t just look bigger; it feels bigger. It carries weight, a visual presence that makes the landscape look slightly rewritten. On this night the Moon appears roughly eight percent larger and noticeably brighter than average, and that alone would make it worth watching. But this year, the Moon also performs an occultation, sliding in front of individual Pleiades stars and hiding them one by one.
For much of the Carolinas, the action begins late on December 3 and continues into the early hours of December 4. Through binoculars or even a small backyard telescope, the view is astonishing: bright cluster members like Alcyone and Electra winking out behind the lunar limb, then reappearing later like cosmic lighthouse beams. If you’re photographing the event, shorter exposures are your friend — the Moon is bright enough to wash out detail if you aren’t careful, and the Pleiades deserve to remain crisp. A planetarium app will give you exact contact times for your county, and it’s worth setting reminders. Events like this don’t come often.
Mercury’s Best Morning of the Year
If you’ve ever wanted to finally “get” Mercury — to spot that elusive little planet so often lost in sunlight — early December 2025 is the time to do it. Mercury reaches its greatest eastern elongation on December 7, shining at a confident magnitude −0.5 in the southeast morning sky.
This is the clearest, brightest, and most accessible morning apparition Mercury offers all year. Step outside about thirty minutes before sunrise and look low — very low — toward the southeastern horizon. Mountain or foothill observers will have the best luck; the winter ecliptic angles steeply upward in December, giving Mercury a natural boost above the haze. Coastal observers can still catch it, but humidity over the water may blur the view, so inland vantage points win the day.
There’s something intimate about watching Mercury rise and set. It’s quick, it’s fleeting, and it rewards those willing to set an early alarm with a moment of quiet triumph.
The Geminids: December’s Crown Jewel
Meteor watchers know there are meteor showers, and then there are the Geminids. Peaking on the night of December 13–14, the Geminids are widely considered the most reliable, abundant, and colorful meteor shower of the entire year. Under truly dark skies, peak rates can approach 150 meteors per hour — and even half that number would feel spectacular.
This year’s Moon cooperates beautifully. A 40-percent waxing crescent slips below the horizon early enough to leave the sky dark for the main event. You don’t need to be up at 3 a.m. to catch the display; the Geminids are generous, delivering steady activity from evening through dawn.
The strategy is simple: find a dark place, let your eyes adjust for twenty minutes, lie back, and watch. Mountain pull-offs along the Blue Ridge Parkway, state parks like South Mountains or Goose Creek, the Pisgah high country, remote farmland, and even certain Outer Banks beaches offer excellent viewing conditions. And unlike images you might take of comets or galaxies, meteor photography rewards simplicity. A wide lens, a high ISO, and repeated 10–20-second exposures will catch streaks without fuss.
The Geminids aren’t just a meteor shower — they’re an experience, and one the Carolinas are particularly well positioned to enjoy.
Solstice Nights and the Subtle Showers
The night of December 21–22 brings us the Ursid Meteor Shower, a more modest performance compared to the Geminids but still worth stepping outside for. With typical rates around 10 meteors per hour, the Ursids favor northern observers; in the Carolinas, this means foothill and mountain regions get the clearest show. Ursid meteors tend to be sharp and fast, and because the shower arrives right near the winter solstice, the nights are long, dark, and quiet.
Other minor showers — the Phoenicids, Monocerotids, Sigma Hydrids, Puppid–Velids, and Comae Berenicids — pepper the entire month. They rarely warrant a dedicated observing trip, but they add sparkle to any extended night outside. Think of them as celestial bonuses: flashes of light that punctuate a long exposure session or a late-night drive under dark country sky.
Comets, Interstellar Visitors, and Small-Body Targets
December also offers several targets for telescope observers and astrophotographers who enjoy more challenging quarry.
The standout is 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar comet—only the third known object of its kind—making its closest approach to Earth around December 19. It’s faint, around magnitude 13, but a small 80–150 mm telescope will reveal its ghostly presence in the early-morning constellation Leo. Even a glimpse is special: this object came from beyond our Solar System and will leave us forever.
Later in the month, on December 28, comet C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos) slides within about two degrees of Mars — a beautiful pairing for photographers using telephoto lenses or tracking mounts. The southwestern sky after sunset becomes a perfect canvas for that shot.
Fainter periodic comets such as 24P/Schaumasse and 210P/Christensen round out the month’s targets for deep-sky hunters, especially those observing from the darker pockets of the Appalachians.
Planets Riding the Winter Sky
Winter’s night planets organize themselves beautifully across the December sky.
Jupiter shines confidently in Gemini, large and brilliant, climbing higher each week as it moves toward its January 2026 opposition. Through binoculars, you’ll see its four main moons; through a scope, you’ll see its banded atmosphere.
Saturn, a pale gem in Aquarius, sits lower but remains accessible in the early evening. Its rings, slowly beginning to open again, offer one of the most rewarding telescope views in the sky.
Uranus and Neptune remain fainter telescope targets in Taurus and Pisces, respectively.
Venus and Mars, however, spend much of the month too close to the Sun to make meaningful appearances.
Choosing the Right Night: Practical Notes
Because December’s temperatures can swing quickly and skies can change from pristine to clouded in minutes, planning makes all the difference.
A few reminders:
All times in this guide use EST, the same as your wall clock.
For local rise, set, and occultation times, use a reliable app such as Sky Tonight, Stellarium, or SkySafari.
For meteor watching, aim for dark, rural, or high-elevation locations.
For photography, keep batteries warm, bring a red-light flashlight, and pack layers that let you remain comfortable for long sessions.
The New Moon on December 19 gives you an absolutely prime deep-sky night on December 20, perfect for photographing galaxies and nebulae.
December rewards preparation — but the rewards are immense.
Why December Is Worth Stepping Into the Cold
December 2025 is the kind of month that turns casual observers into devoted night-sky regulars. It offers the drama of a Supermoon slipping across the Pleiades, the electric excitement of the Geminids streaking overhead, the tender quiet of Mercury rising above the dawn, and the rare thrill of an interstellar visitor passing through the Carolinas’ December darkness.
And the best part? You don’t need exotic gear. A blanket, a thermos, a pair of binoculars, and a willingness to stand outside for a few minutes are enough to turn an ordinary night into something luminous.
As the year winds down and the nights grow longer, let December remind you that wonder is always overhead — and always available to anyone who steps outside and looks up.
See you under the stars.
Juxtaposed Tides — Carolina’s Night Skies.
This article is dedicated to our late friend Oliver "Bert" Whitlock... My best right-hand moon-capturing friend, my buddy, my soul-brother. We miss adventuring and stargazing with you pal. You are cattooed to our souls forever special boy, especially the love and hope you gave in ways only you could. December 2, 2016, Happy birthday to our lives. 10 years could never be long enough, even if multiplied by infinity. I love you Oliver. Isn't there a longer time than forever?
Professional and first class as always. So unique. I am always looking for a sense of wonder and I get it here. Keep em coming!