Planets rendezvous in a.m. twilight December 10
See the two tiny dots in the upper left portion of this photo? That's Venus and Jupiter near each other in the twilight sky. Tomorrow morning, December 10th, it'll be Mercury, Mars and Jupiter that rendezvous in the predawn twilight. They'll be near the sunrise and tough to see, but won't group again so closely until 2053. (Image courtesy of Dan Bush)
DB: This is Earth & Sky for Saturday, December 9, 2006. Sunday morning three visible planets — Mercury, Mars and Jupiter — stage a rendezvous in the glare of dawn. It’ll be the closest grouping of three planets until the year 2053.
JB: But the planets are so close to the glare of the coming sunrise that they’ll be tough to see. They’re rising just before the dawn – in the southeast above the sunrise point on your horizon. If your sky is very clear and you have an unobstructed view to the east tomorrow morning, you might catch sight of the brightest of the three, Jupiter. If you do see a bright object very near the coming sunrise, that could be Jupiter. Try sweeping nearby with binoculars to see Mercury and Mars.
DB: Even experienced sky watchers will have trouble spotting all 5 of the solar system’s visible planets right now. These 5 visible planets are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. As Joel said, Mercury, Mars and Jupiter are near the dawn. Venus is very low in the west after sunset now.
JB: But then there’s Saturn. It looks like a respectably bright star now and can be seen near the waning gibbous moon tonight. The only trick is you have to stay up late, or get up early. The moon and Saturn rise in the east at mid–to–late evening. They’re high in the sky at dawn.
DB: For today, that’s our show. We’re Block and Byrd for Earth & Sky.
More Information
Rise/set times for the sun, moon and planets, courtesy of Old Farmer’s Almanac
Rise/set times for the sun, moon and planets, courtesy of the US Naval Observatory
Exploring the Planets by National Air and Space Museum
With an unobstructed horizon and a clear sky, you should be able to see Jupiter at dawn. This planet is the fourth brightest celestial object to light up the heavens, after the sun, moon and Venus. Jupiter is your ticket to seeing the closest planetary trio for the next 47 years. Look at Jupiter through binoculars to search for Mercury and Mars swarming nearby. Mercury is the brighter of these two planets, and it’s possible that you’ll see Mercury but not Mars in the twilight glare.
According to the computational wizard Jean Meeus, these planets all fit within a circle whose diameter spans less than one degree on December 10, at 1 p.m. Universal Time (7 a.m. Central Time). For reference, the diameter of the sun or moon is equal to approximately 1/2 degree. Another planetary trio won’t come this close together until November 25, 2053, when once again, Mercury, Mars and Jupiter all lie within a circle of less than one degree in diameter.
We give a special thank you to Jean Meeus
author of MATHEMATICAL ASTRONOMY MORSELS (pages 262–264).
Dear Deborah Byrd and Joel Block,
A hopfull planet watcher, Shilo T PerteetHello!I’m 11 years old and have waited up all night to see the planets.I’d rather see them now then when i’m 58!Ha ha!I am rather upset for the weather is very poor at the moment.It’s 3:15 AM and I just got back inside from the rain.The sky is filled with clouds.I did get one chance to see Saturn with the naked eye but sadly,I made th mistake of running inside to get my binoculars and when I retuned Saturn was coverd with grey and black clouds.because I do not have a clear sky i think that i will not be able to see the three planets.What do i do to watch this one in a liftime oppertuiy?I thank you for your time.
Lots of cloud cover the last several weeks at my home in upstate New York, but it was clear this morning! Saw all three planets, but couldn’t have done it without binoculars. Jupiter and Mercury were absolutely stunning.
Hello, thank you for your advice and direction on where to see the weekend threesome. My sister bought a new telescope for my nephew so we took him out Early Sunday morning here in Tucson, AZ. Due to very clear skies, we were able to get a real good look at all 3 using the low power lens however I encountered some fine stability problems and was not able to locate them using the high power lens. This was the first ever viewing with this telescope (We just put it together last night) so I’m sure we need to do a little tweeking still to get it completely right. It tickled the horseradish out of my nephew though, seeing other planets right there in the sky. Thank you for your story and help.
Jim,
Good to hear the news! It’s difficult to get a sharp focus with high power when looking so close to the horizon. You’re looking through a lot more atmosphere than when the object is higher in the sky.
From SE Ohio it was a bust, too much glare. However, the moon with Saturn underneath was quite nice.