Look East and West at 5am

[iceman (Mike)]

Pretty interesting time at the moment..

At 5am eastern time, look East and West, and you'll see two of the brightest objects in the night sky.

In the East, you'll see Venus rising at a whopping mag -4.11. Through a telescope it'll be seen as a 66% illuminated phase, and 17" in diameter.

In the West, you'll see Jupiter setting, at mag -2.5 and 45" in diameter. It's great to watch the dance of the 4 galilean moons and the GRS, so use a program like Jupiter 2 to help you predict the best time to see moon and shadow transits, as well as the GRS.

They're both fairly low at 5am, only 22° altitude, so in reality it's best to view Jupiter when it's much higher in the sky (earlier in the morning or late at night, around 11pm), and if you wait another 30-60 minutes in the morning Venus will be much higher and out of the crud near the horizon.

I just thought it would be pretty interesting to view them both at the same altitude in the East and West, naked eye

[matt]

I like it. Good heads-up.

Definietly interesting to see those two very bright objects at opposite ends of the scale, one rising and the other setting... at the same time, and it's a magic time of day to be outside.

[Miaplacidus (Brian)]

I had to drive someone to the airport early this morning. No stars, but Venus and Jupiter were both obvious in the crepuscular gloom.

[vindictive666 (John)]

i see them every morning at 04.20 am local time

cool sight


jupiter has its own little companion star as well

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

How do you guys do it? After getting to bed at 02:30 there is no way I can get back up at 05:00.

vinD, that little star has one of the coolest names in the sky, it's one of my favs - Zubenelgenubi - great name. And the bright star to the north is Zubenelschamali. What a pair

[33South (Chris)]

Eyeballing Venus each morning makes waiting on Wentworth Falls station at 6am seem worthwhile.