Moon can guide you to Mars on June 7
The planet Mars is named after the Roman God of war (Ares in Greek mythology).
(Image credit: NASA/National Space Science Data Center)
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Tonight, the waxing crescent moon and planet Mars will be close together on the sky’s dome.
If you see them, you can also identify another planet and a star. First – notice tonight’s moon. It’ll be in front of a faint constellation, Cancer the Crab.
And the brightest ‘star’ in Cancer tonight is really the red planet Mars, which is only modestly bright now but still easily visible to the eye alone. Around the world this evening, Mars is near the moon in front of Cancer. As seen from the Americas, the moon and Mars will couple up close together this evening. They’ll be closer tomorrow evening as viewed from the world’s eastern hemisphere – for example, New Zealand or Australia.
Wherever you are, look for two star-like lights near Mars and the moon tonight. Both are brighter than Mars, and they’re also noticeable for being near each other on the sky’s dome. Blue-white Regulus – the closer light to Mars – is the brightest star in the constellation Leo the Lion. The other object is the golden planet Saturn.
On July 1 – in what will be the year’s closest pairing of a planet with a first-magnitude star – Mars will be in conjunction with Regulus. On July 11, Mars will rendezvous with Saturn to stage the closest Mars-Saturn conjunction until the year 2022.
By the way, Regulus and Saturn fit within one binocular field of view. If you have binoculars, turn them on this star and planet to check out their contrasting colors. Saturn is golden. Regulus is blue-white.
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