Look to the Sky

lloydslights — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 21:59:41 GMT

Mars, Jupiter and Venus will this week come close together in the skies over Earth, in a "planetary dance" that promises to delight astronomers.

Amateur astronomer Ian Musgrave from the University of Adelaide said the three planets would come close together to form what is called a planetary conjunction.

"Look to the east and the three of them will be roughly a hand span above the eastern horizon, a little bit north of east."

Dr Musgrave said Venus was the brightest and most obvious of the planets.

"It's the brightest object in the sky at the moment, apart from the Moon and the Sun," he said.

"Jupiter is the next brightest object, very close to Venus. Mars is a little bit harder to see — at the moment it's kind of an undistinguishable red dot just to the right of Venus and Jupiter.

"Over the next few days, as Venus comes closer and closer to Mars, you'll be able to recognise Mars as being the only relatively bright thing anywhere near Venus."

Dr Musgrave said it was a great time of year for astronomers, with the crescent Moon joining the planets next week as well.

"On November 7, Jupiter and the crescent Moon are very close, with Venus and Mars below them," he said.

"Then on the eighth, you're going to have the two planets, Mars and Venus, quite close together and quite close to the Moon so that will all look really fantastic in the early morning."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-26/mars-jupiter-and-venus-come-together-in-sky-over-earth/6884714

^^^^^Full article and pictures of where to look and what to expect to see.

I hope the skies will be clear

DEB

Oh and you'll have leave your bed pre-dawn.

Re: Look to the Sky

jds_noise — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 22:36:23 GMT

This morning it looked like this.....

The brightest dot is Venus. The dimmer dot above and to the left of Venus is Jupiter. The very dim dot below and to the left of both is Mars. It's worth getting up a little early to see.

Re: Look to the Sky

skyrider12-au — Tue, 27 Oct 2015 02:42:02 GMT

Wow! - I will be very disappointed if I can't see all that happening in the sky over Norfolf Island, or I sleep in ... again.

Re: Look to the Sky

moonflyte — Tue, 27 Oct 2015 06:29:05 GMT

What a great picture.

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