A sight worth getting up for

I am still not a morning astronomer, but this was worth getting up for. The overflight of the International Space Station and the space shuttle Discovery, together. Morning was bad enough, but this was a Monday morning.

After getting up at 4:30 a.m. the first task was to look out the window to see if the sky was clear, it was. From the window I could see Orion gleaming in the early morning darkness and a slender crescent Moon off to the southeast with a brilliant Venus shining close by.

After checking heavens-above.com to confirm the pass timing I watched the NASA channel for a bit to see what they were doing.

Outside it was a glorious fall morning, the temperature was a moderate 40 degrees -- the temperature inside the average refrigerator -- and the sky was clear and crisp.

Right on schedule a small, bright dot appears in the southwest but it was only one dot. After a bit a binocular check reveals there are two dots. They are just too close to separate visually yet. Discovery had just separated from the space station so they were going to be close together during the pass.

The pair glide silently against the background of the stars below Orion, just between the Moon/Venus pair and Saturn and off to the east into the growing glow of sunrise. The whole thing only took eight minutes.

Now, since I am still dressed for the dance, what else am I going to do? Well, there is the Moon/Venus pair nearly overhead, softly glowing Saturn just above forming its own partnership with the bright star Regulus in Leo, the Lion.

Tiny Mercury is off to the east just above the horizon and a ruby-red Mars is brilliantly shining overhead in Gemini. That is four of the five naked-eye planets visible at one time. They all make for some nice early morning observing. The fifth planet is Jupiter which is still in the evening skies.

Just before going inside one quick check to the northwest to look in on comet 17/P Holmes. It's there even larger than the last time I checked, although a bit dimmer in overall brightness.

All-in-all, not a bad morning's work. Just as an afterthought I decided to go back outside at about 7:30 to check in on the Moon. Yep, Venus is there too, still shining brightly although binoculars were needed to see it. Oh, and in all the excitement I forgot to look for the zodiacal light.

SKY WATCH:

First quarter moon, Saturday, Nov. 17. The Moon will be near the planet Neptune on the evening of Nov. 17, but will be better placed for viewing next month.

Next time:

More astronomical blatherings.