the first star you see at night...” is Jupiter—low in the west. And the last star you see at dawn is Venus in the east.
“The Edge of Night”—anyone remember that TV Soap Opera that ran from 1956 to 1975? You can still see the Edge of Night in the clear evening sky at sunset each evening in the east.

Look in the east at sunset and notice the pink horizontal band just above a darker area. This pinkish area is known as “the veil of Venus” or the “belt of Venus”. The darker area below it is the Earth’s shadow. As the Sun sinks lower and lower below the western horizon, the Earth’s shadow gets higher and higher. The boundary between this pink band and the shadow is called the Edge of Night.

“The Twilight Zone”—anyone remember that TV series that ran from 1959 to 1964? You can experience the twilight every evening between sunset and night. Night officially arrives when the Edge of Night sets in the west--this is called Astronomical Twilight when the Sun is 18 degrees below the horizon.

On December 18th, Mercury is the bright ‘star’ below and to the right of the crescent Moon.

It is wonderful to watch the Moon rise out of Corpus Christi Bay
Wednesday December 2nd 6:00 p.m. exactly 100% full at 1:31 a.m.
Thursday December 3rd 7:07 p.m. waning gibbous 97% full
Friday December 4th 8:16 p.m. waning gibbous 92% full

And watch the Blue Moon rise—second full moon in a month
Thursday December 31st 5:53 p.m. exactly 100% full at 1:14 p.m.

Owen Hopkins December 2009