What timing! I had just copied this bit below about the stars at this time
of year, to share here and on another list I'm on. Thank you very much for
the information about viewing the moon.
Rhea

This is from the jackstargazer website. Some of you may know him from PBS.
This is a transcript of his spot that was run the week before New Year's.
"Plus if you happen to miss it on New Year's Eve don't fret because Sirius
will be in almost the same spot at midnight each night for the first week of
the new year."
http://jackstargazer.com/scripts0SG0252.html

"Celebrate 2003 With The New Year's Eve Star
And The Two Largest Planets At Their Best"

Horkheimer: Greetings greetings, fellow star gazers. You know because there
is usually no school on major holidays, children and adults frequently stay
up later than usual. So over the years viewers have asked me to find
something special in the heavens they can see each holiday night. And years
ago when I was trying to find something really special to see one New Year's
Eve, I accidentally discovered something absolutely wonderful. A very
special New Year's Eve star which you can see every New Year's Eve for the
rest of your life. Let me show you.

O.K., we've got our skies set up for 8 p.m. your local time, New Year's Eve,
facing due south and ,first, like all good astronomers let's draw an
imaginary line which divides the eastern half of the sky from the western
half, an imaginary line called the meridian which runs from the horizon due
south straight up to the zenith point and then down the other side of the
sky to the horizon due north. Now as our Earth slowly and endlessly rotates
from west to east we are nightly treated to the grandest optical illusion in
nature, that of watching the stars seem to rise in the east, slowly travel
across the sky all night long and eventually set in the west. And if you
watch every night you will eventually deduce that the highest point any star
reaches above the horizon in its nightly journey is when it is smack dab on
the meridian.

Now this is very important to telescope users because the higher a sky
object is above the horizon, the better its telescopic image will be. So
several years ago when I was researching which planets would be high up off
the horizon for viewing that New Year's Eve I stumbled across something
which to me was an amazing coincidence, something which I had never read
about in any astronomy book, and that coincidence is: no matter where you
happen to be on New Year's Eve, as hour after hour goes by, the brightest
star in the heavens, Sirius, will slowly climb up the southeastern sky and
at midnight will reach its highest point and be on the meridian. Think of
it... the brightest star visible from our planet reaches its highest point
above the horizon at midnight every New Year's Eve. How wonderful, how
poetic, almost like a cosmic reminder that this most brilliant of stellar
lights is welcoming in and shining on the new year, giving us all hope for a
bright new beginning. Plus if you happen to miss it on New Year's Eve don't
fret because Sirius will be in almost the same spot at midnight each night
for the first week of the new year.

And to top it off, this New Year's Eve at midnight we'll have two added
attractions because up and to the right of the New Year's Eve star you will
see Saturn which right now is as big and as bright as it gets and is at its
best telescopic viewing in 30 years. And up and to Sirius' left you'll see
brilliant Jupiter with its four dancing moons only 4 weeks away from its
closest and brightest. What a way to welcome 2003 with not only a New Year's
Eve star but two super planets at their best. So if you want to start this
New Year's and every New Year's Eve right step out side at midnight and make
your new year bright with cosmic light. All you have to do is Keep Looking
Up!