Morning Planets

[Tropo-Bob (Bob)]

I viewed Jupiter, Saturn and Mars high up this morning in a line of about 10 degrees. It appeared somewhat like an oversized Belt of Orion. Mercury was near the horizon. Good to see that they are back.

Mars is showing its gibbious shape with my Vixed 81mm ED at 90x. Its nice to have a light scope at that time of the morning!

[Tinderboxsky (Steve)]

I am also enjoying these early morning views and watching the planet’s ever changing positions.

[Tropo-Bob (Bob)]

Venus, the Crescent Moon and low Jupiter made a nice, wide, bright trio around 5.20am this morning. They should also look good tomorrow.

A closer trio was Venus and Saturn with Mars just above.

[Tinderboxsky (Steve)]

Nice. The next month or so holds some real treats. I am looking forward to observing the close conjunctions coming up.

Originally Posted by Tropo-Bob

Venus, the Crescent Moon and low Jupiter made a nice, wide, bright trio around 5.20am this morning. They should also look good tomorrow.

A closer trio was Venus and Saturn with Mars just above.

[leon]

It certainly is a view to behold especially on a nice early clear morning.

leon

[Tropo-Bob (Bob)]

I had another peep this morning. The Moon made an interesting sight with its thin crescent and abundant earthshine being apparent even though the nearby sky was quite pinkish.

The Moon was below Jupiter (I was expecting it to still be above) and I was thrilled, as I rarely see it in the morning sky when it is less than 35 hours before New Moon.

I also noticed relevant movement in the above trio of planets. This will continue and on the 5th and 6th of April; Mars and Saturn will be only half a degree apart. Worth watching!

[N1 (Mirko)]

Saw that too this morning, very neat.

[EpickCrom (Joe)]

Still cloudy here in Perth but caught the attractive conjunction with Venus, Mars and Saturn this morning with the naked eye through a break in the clouds. A spectacular sight! Mars above, Saturn in the middle and Venus below.

[Tropo-Bob (Bob)]

I could see both Mars and Saturn in the same field this morning using 25x and a plossl EP.

[JohnF (John)]

I saw it on Stellarium, and told people at my outreach I would be asleep that time of the morning. Had to get up, but trees are east of where I was.

[Tropo-Bob (Bob)]

And just now, I could see Mars and Saturn in the same field using 40x and a plossl EP.

[Tropo-Bob (Bob)]

I have just been viewing Mars and Saturn, which are even closer together than I expected. Using 104x, I could just fit them in the same field when using a Tak ortho EP so I guess that make them about 0.4 of a degree apart.

They make a striking pair. They are both roughly equal in brightness, however the light from the smaller Mars is more intense. The red disc of Mars compared to Saturn's yellow also makes a very interesting color contrast. Furthermore, the round disc of Mars compared to Saturn's oval shape highlights how very different they are in composition.

I also pondered the fact that they are on the far side of the Sun from us and this extra distant helps shrink the apparent separation between the two planets. I guess that closest planetary conjunctions of the outer planets are when they are furthest from us.

[EpickCrom (Joe)]

Hi Bob, like you I have just been observing the spectacular conjunction between Mars and Saturn. Very striking naked eye, nice red and yellow contrast and similar magnitudes. They were 19' apart when I viewed them, both fitting in the field of view at 171x. I also managed to see comet 22P/ Kopff near Venus. A lovely early morning observations!

[UniPol]

I was up around 5.00 this morning and had a peek in the east and Venus was certainly very bright but Saturn and Mars took the cake being so close together. I was tempted to set up the scope but guess I was just too lazy that time of morning, I had been out last night until late in any case, it was just nice to take in the sight.

Inside I fired up SkySafari on the Ipad and measured the distance between Saturn and Mars on the the distance scale and it changed by the second, literally! I recall it was something like 21' 16.4" separation and the seconds reading changed to 16.2" then 16.1" and so on. Currently, some 6 hours later SkySafari shows a separation of 18' 19.6" then 18' 19.7" and 8.69 AU apart. It appears they are moving apart now. The visual magnitude of Saturn is +0.9 and Mars +1.0

[Tropo-Bob (Bob)]

This morning, Mars and Saturn are still close, but not as close as yesterday.

Mars has been moving Eastward at a greater pace than Saturn and has now replaced Saturn as being closer to both Venus and the dawn horizon.

[Tropo-Bob (Bob)]

Venus is rapidly moving eastward and is outpacing Mars to be near Jupiter. Venus and Jupiter will be impressively close at the end of this month, whereas Mars will not be close with Jupiter till the end of May.

Venus and Mars were close a few weeks back and seeing their relative movement to the East has really cemented in my mind that Venus can move more quickly than Mars.

However, I notice that the Moon joins in the groupings from the 26th to the 28th. That really brings home to me that the Moon is the fastest moving body in our skies. Oh, I know this is apparent motion only, not true speed, and omits meteors, close asteroids, machines, etc.

[Tropo-Bob (Bob)]

Today, the morning planets were roughly-evenly-spaced about 10 to 12 degrees apart. Saturn and Mars toped the line, then come the brilliant Venus, which is rapidly on its way to its close encounter with Jupiter.

[EpickCrom (Joe)]

Originally Posted by Tropo-Bob

Today, the morning planets were roughly-evenly-spaced about 10 to 12 degrees apart. Saturn and Mars toped the line, then come the brilliant Venus, which is rapidly on its way to its close encounter with Jupiter.

I can't wait for the close encounter between Venus and Jupiter. It's on May 1 st and should be spectacular!

[Tropo-Bob (Bob)]

Venus and Jupiter closed to about six degrees apart this morning and were like a supercharged version of Alpha and Beta Centauri.

The Crescent Moon was near Mars and Saturn is now located far higher than the others.

[EpickCrom (Joe)]

Got up early this morning and observed the Venus/Neptune conjunction. They were seperated by around 5' while I was observing them. Nice contrast between brilliant white Venus and cool blue Neptune. Best view was at 150x with both in the field of view