For those outdoors early Sunday morning, the crescent moon appears close to the ringed-planet Saturn.

When the stars come out on New Year’s Eve, you can expect the gibbous moon to rise in the east at 8 p.m.

Winter officially arrived this morning at 6:12 a.m. and from here on the days will grow longer. There are two more weeks of sunrises that are the latest of the season, but this will change. Sunsets have already begun to get later, about a minute every other day. Sunrises will be earlier in the morning beginning Jan. 11.

The meteor shower Geminids peaked last night, although there may be a chance to see a few stragglers over the weekend.

On Tuesday morning a thin crescent moon appears low in the southeastern sky before sunrise near the bright planet Saturn.

Saturn, the ringed planet, resides in the zodiacal constellation Virgo, where it has been for more than two years. It usually takes Saturn two years to move from one zodiacal constellation into the next. The moon takes two days to move through one constellation.

On Wednesday morning the moon will have advanced farther eastward and will appear in the zodiacal constellation Libra.

The end of our darkest days is near — nearer, in fact, than you may have been lead to believe.

As of Friday, the sun is setting at 4:11 p.m., the earliest it will set on the Vineyard for the rest of the year. Sunsets will start getting later in the afternoon beginning on Dec. 15, when the sun will set at 4:12 p.m.