Some really nice observing at this, my favourite time of year for stargazing.
You can, of course, see the moon until it wanes which is always an amazing sight.
To the South, you can see Orion and you can clearly see the nebula in 'Orions Sword'. Up towards the right, you can see the 'seven sisters' which are an amazing sight with the naked eye, binoculars or a small telescope.
When you wait, then you see the brightest star in the Sky come up with Canis Major (At around 21:15 in the UK) - Sirius or the 'Dog Star' - this is an amazing sight - it's so bright and when you see it low in the sky, it glitters like a mad disco ball even to the naked eye. Through binoculars, it's an astonishing sight.
You can always find the 'Big Dipper' (Or Ursa Major) and if you look at the 'pot' then the right hand 'side' points inwards towards Polaris (The Pole Star) in the Little Dipper (Or Ursa Minor) - the 'handle' in Ursa Major also points to the top of two bright stars, this is the constellation Gemini and you can see the two stars Pollux and Castor - if you look across from there, you can again see the bright red star in Orion (Betelgeuse)
Look around for the E or W or M or 3 and that's Cassopia which has the milky way running right through the middle of it - which you can see if you're lucky enough to be somewhere dark! If you look to the left of Cassiopeia as it spins, you can see the constellation Perseus (With the astonishing 'Demon Star' (Called Algol) - this represents the Medusa's head and is said to be 'unlucky' - it's a strange star to observe as about every three days, it's companion star passes in front of it and it's appearance changes rapidly.
You usually see 'The Swan' (Cygnus) as well later on - this looks like a big cross and if you go from Polaris, and then outwards past the sweeping Draco constellation then you can see it rising there (17:00 onwards is a decent time to see it)
If you're lucky enough to be somewhere dark then there are some great objects; The Orion Nebula (In the Sword of Orion), the Pinwheel Galaxy (Near Ursa Major), The Andromeda Galaxy (Near Andromeda), The North American Nebula (To the 'top' of Cygnus)
Plenty to see out there and if you're using your eyes, binoculars or a telescope then this is the best time of year for me in the Northern Hemisphere. Always something to see.
You can also clearly see Mars - which comes from the East and moves across to the West (like all planets) across the Southern Sky - you need a decent telescope to resolve but further ahead, high in the sky you can see Jupiter which even with binoculars is an incredible sight - you can clearly see the pinpoints of light that are four (or more if you're lucky!) or it's moons - tonight you can probably see three to the 'right' - Io, Europa and Ganymede - If you keep watching and come back to it, then you can clearly see the moons move in their orbits!
On the 10th of December at around half four, you should be able to see Directly South - low on the horizon - Saturn. Look left (Towards the East) - you can see Jupiter higher up - if you are high up or somewhere flat then you might also be able to look towards the East and see Mars coming up over the horizon - this will get higher and higher as the night goes on - moving West before setting as the morning arrives.
