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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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Spaceweather.com says Set your alarm for dawn. Three planets and the crescent Moon are gathering for a beautiful alignment in the eastern sky before sunrise. In the mornings ahead, the Moon will hop from Venus to Mars and Mercury, forming a series of beautiful conjunctions, while Venus has its own close encounter with bright blue star Regulus. .
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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Jane Houston Jones tells us What's Up in the October sky. You can see it as a short video and/or read the transcript.
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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EarthSky's Deborah Byrd suggests we look out for the star Arcturus. It's a yellow-orange star, but it can seem to scintillate (flash) in different colors. That's because it's low in the sky. You should be able to see it in the west at dusk or nightfall. Once it gets good and dark, and you live at mid-to-far latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, you can verify that this star is Arcturus by using the Big Dipper asterism. An old mnemonic says "Arc to Arcturus". This is a reminder that you can find Arcturus by following the handle of the Big Dipper (the Plough). It's visible throughout October at mid-northern latitudes.
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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Any earlybirds reading this? Bruce McClure of EarthSky suggests you look out before dawn for Venus and Mars. The easy bit is finding Venus - it's dazzling. Mars is quite faint, so binoculars might help. For several more days now, the two planets will be in the same binocular view. This view of the two planets was taken Sunday morning by Dennis Chabot at Posne Night Sky Astrophotography. This diagram shows you where to look for Venus and Mars. But when should you be looking? McClure says: Given an unobstructed eastern horizon at mid-northern latitudes, the planetary twosome rises about 2 hours before sunrise. At temperate latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, Venus and Mars come up in the east about one hour before the sun.
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Joined: May 2010
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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Did you see the Harvest Moon? Bet it didn't look like the one in Gene Aubin's picture. He caught the setting Harvest Moon over the ocean in Newport, Oregon. The distortion is a type of mirage, caused by refraction. You can let the Moon guide you to the planets Venus and Mars on the mornings of October 16, 17 and 18.
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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Viewing hints for early November from Bruce McClure and Deborah Byrd of EarthSky:Saturn is clearly visible after nightfall. Mercury is lost in the sunset glare during the first half of the month. In the early morning sky, before sunup, there's Venus (dazzling!), Jupiter (very bright) and Mars (very faint). Here's the eastern sky an hour before sunrise. If you have a clear eastern horizon, you might catch the superb conjunction of Venus and Jupiter around November 13th. It will be quite low in the sky.
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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NASA's Jane Houston Jones picks out sky viewing highlights in What's up? - November 2017.
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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It's happening early Monday morning (November 13). EarthSky reminds us to watch for the super-close pairing of the sky’s two brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter. They’ll be in the sunrise direction, low in the eastern sky at dawn. Depending on where you live worldwide, Venus and Jupiter will come closest together on the sky’s dome on the morning of November 13 or 14. They’ll be snuggling plenty close on both dates, close enough to fit easily inside the same binocular field (or possibly even a single field of view in a low-powered telescope).
At their closest, Venus and Jupiter will be 0.3o apart. That’s less than the apparent diameter of the moon (0.5o).
What’s more, you won’t want to miss the waning crescent moon swinging by these worlds later this week. By the way, Spica is the brightest star in the constellation Virgo and Arcturus is the brightest star in the constellation Bootes.
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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Here are some photos from EarthSky readers of the Jupiter/Venus conjunction. Seeing Venus and Jupiter isn’t just a one-day event. Here they are on November 12, 2017, when Jupiter was below Venus. This photo is from Kino Obusan in Cabuyao, Laguna, Philippines. Dave Chapman in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada wrote: “I set the alarm to rise at 6 a.m. about an hour before sunrise to catch this appulse of Venus and Jupiter in a clear sky. Conjunction of Venus and Jupiter over downtown Denver on November 13, after emerging from the clouds, via Christy Sanchez.
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Joined: May 2010
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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November 17 & 18 are the dates when the Leonid meteor shower is expected to peak. Worth a look if it's not raining and you don't live - as I do - in a light-polluted city.
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