5 Planets Alignment The Moon 01-30-2016, 06:13am EST
outside of Warrenton, Virginia. Image credit and copyright: John Chumack
Canon 6D DSLR, 8mm fisheye Lens, Slightly Cropped ISO 800, 8 second exposure,
Have you seen them? There’s been a quintet of good reasons to awaken early this past week, as the February dawn sky hosts all five classical planets, very nearly in order: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter. For a few days, the waning crescent Moon even joined the show on the weeks leading up to New on February 8th. Fleeting Mercury breaks the streak later this week, exiting the dawn sky as it heads towards superior conjunction on the far side of the Sun on March 23rd. Continue reading “Stunning Images of the February Dawn Planetary Line-up from Around the World”
The waning crescent Moon above Venus and Saturn (dimmer and below Venus) in the dawn twilight on January 6, 2016. The Moon re-visits the grouping in early February. Image credit and copyright: Alan Dyer.
A fine sight greets early risers this week into the month of February, as all five naked eye planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter ring the sky from horizon to horizon.
Though not a true planetary alignment as extolled by many websites, this is a great chance to see all five classical planets above the horizon at once… or seven, if you count the waning gibbous Moon and the rising Sun, as the ancients did as part of their geocentric, Earth-entered universe. You can kinda see how they got there, as the very heavens themselves seemed to whorl about the cradle of earthly human affairs. Continue reading “And Mercury Makes Five: See All Naked Eye Planets in the Sky at Once”
A tri-planetary grouping from the morning of October 31st. Image credit and copyright: Joseph Brimacombe
So, did this past weekend’s shift back to Standard Time for most of North America throw you for a loop? Coming the day after Halloween, 2015 was the earliest we can now shift back off Daylight Saving Time. Sunday won’t fall on November 1st again until 2020. Expect evenings get darker sooner for northern hemisphere residents, while the planetary action remains in the dawn sky.
Though Mercury has exited the morning twilight stage, the planets Jupiter, Venus and Mars continue to put on a fine show, joined by the waning crescent Moon later this week. The action starts today on November 3rd, which finds +1.9 magnitude Mars passing just 0.68 degrees (40’, just over the apparent diameter of a Full Moon) from brilliant -3.9 magnitude Venus. Though the two nearest planets to the Earth appear to meet up in the dawn sky, Mars is actually 2.5 times more distant than Venus, which sits 74.4 million miles (124 million kilometres) from the Earth. Venus exhibits a 57% illuminated gibbous phase 21” across this week, versus Mars’ paltry 4.5” disc.
The lunar planetary lineup on the morning of November 6th… Image credit: Starry Night Education Software
Watch the scene shift, as the Moon joins the dance this weekend. The mornings of Friday, November 6th and Saturday, November 7th are key, as the Moon passes just two degrees from the Jupiter and Mars pair and just over one degree from Venus worldwide. Similar close pairings of the Moon and Venus adorn many national flags, possibly inspired by a close grouping of Venus and the Moon witnessed by skywatchers of yore.
… and the view the next morning on November 7th. Image credit: Starry Night Education software
Saturday November 7th is also a fine time to try your hand at seeing Venus in the daytime, using the nearby crescent Moon as a guide. The Moon will be only four days from New, and the pair will be 46 degrees west of the Sun, an optimal situation as Venus just passed greatest western elongation 46.4 degrees west of the Sun on October 26th.
Mars meets Venus on November 3rd-4th… the center circle = 1 degree FoV. Image credit: Stellarium
Though Venus may seem like a difficult daytime object, it’s actually intrinsically brighter than the Moon per square arc second. Difficulty finding it stems from seeing it against a low contrast blue daytime sky, its small size, and lack of context and depth. The larger but dimmer Moon actually serves as a good anchor to complete this feat of visual athletics.
Venus from the morning of November 3rd. Image credit and copyright: Shahrin Ahmad
Looking for more? Comet C/2013 US10 Catalina will join the planetary lineup next lunation ‘round, hopefully shining at magnitude +5 as it glides past Venus and the Moon on December 7th. Karl Battams at the U.S. Naval Research Labs has confirmed that Comet US10 Catalina—which reaches perihelion this month on November 15th –should also briefly graze the field of view for SOHO’s LASCO C3 camera on November 7th.
There’s also a few notable lunar occultations this week. The Moon also occults the +5 magnitude star Chi Leonis for viewers around the Gulf of Mexico on November 4th, including a dramatic grazing event for Northern Florida. The Moon also occults the +3.5 magnitude star Omicron Leonis on Nov 4th for Alaska as well.
The occultation footprint for Chi Leonis. The solid lines indicate where the event will occur during darkness and twilight hours, while the dashed lines denote where the event transpires during the daytime. Image credit: Occult 4.2 software
See a bright star near the Venus this week? It’s none other than +3.6 magnitude Beta Virginis (Zavijava). The star passes 15’ from Venus on the morning of November 6th. Stick around ‘til 2069, and you can actually witness Venus occult Beta Virginis. Between Beta Virginis and Mars, Venus has the appearance this week of having the large pseudo-moon it never possessed. From Venus, our Moon would appear near magnitude +0.4 with a disk 6.4” this week, and range 12’ from the Earth.
The closeup view on the morning of November 7th along with a 5 degree Telrad FoV. image credit: Stellarium
Now for the wow factor. All of these disparate objects merely lie along our Earthbound line of sight this week. Traveling at the speed of light (186,282 miles or 299,792 kilometers a second), the Moon lies just over a second away. Venus, Mars and Jupiter are next, at 6, 18, and 49 light minutes out, respectively… and Beta Virginis? It lies 36 light years distant.
This pass of the Moon also sets us up for an occultation of Mars and a dramatic daytime occultation of Venus for North America during the next lunation…
More to come!
-Got pictures of the planetary grouping this week with the Moon? Be sure to send ’em in to Universe Today and our Flickr forum.
