Vernon Whetstone

The morning dance of the planets

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

If you have been missing the early morning dance of the planets because of clouds or other such things that block your view, not to worry. It will continue on into November and for some aspects even into the next year.

The planetary alignment is such now that Venus, Mars, and the giant Jupiter are visible together about an hour before local sunrise these early autumn mornings.

For those of us living in southwest Nebraska that is not as bad as it sounds, with the Sun rising just before 7 a.m. MDT, that puts our viewing requirements at about 6:00am, and I think even the most dedicated of Night Owls will be able to make that one.

Let's start with tomorrow morning, Thursday, Oct. 15. If we are up and out looking east with an adequate, uncluttered, horizon we will be able to see a three-planet and one star lineup using just our eyes alone

At the top is the bright star Regulus, the heart star of the constellation Leo, the Lion. People are always happy to see Leo because he is a harbinger of spring. Come early April evenings Leo can be seen crossing the top of the sky chasing all the stars of winter off the scene down toward the western horizon.

Below Regulus is another bright object, this time it is the second planet out from the Sun, Venus. Although it is showing a phase that looks like a first-quarter moon, it is showing very brightly in the sky.

Below Venus is a planetary due, Mars (on top) and the giant gas-planet, Jupiter. During the coming days watch each morning as Mars and Jupiter move closer to each other until they are about one-half degree apart--which is about the width of a full moon.

By Oct. 23 all three planets are about an equal distance apart. But the "dance" doesn't stop there.

By Sunday, Oct. 25, Venus and Jupiter will be close to each other, the Goddess of Love and the King of the Planets will be doing a tango for the next couple of days.

By the end of the month, Jupiter appears to be standing still while Mars and Venus drop toward the horizon.

By Nov. 2, Venus and Mars are close to each other and on November 6 a slender crescent moon passes Venus and on November 7, it stands just below Mars and Jupiter.

One activity you might do each night it to sketch these planetary and lunar positions to observe and record their movements and changes.

I always tell my astronomy classes that they need to draw their observations to record what they see. The artwork does not need to be on a quality par with Rembrandt or any other famous artist, just a basic sketch of what you see.

That way you will be able to remember what you were seeing. Be sure to date your drawing and record the time of the observation, weather conditions, the direction you are looking and all the people you were observing with.