See Saturn, Mars, Regulus in late June 2008
The moon, Regulus, Saturn and Venus. June 19, 2007. ©2007 David Lee
See a larger version of this image.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
As darkness falls tonight, three pinpoints of light line up closely together in your western sky.
In their order of brightness, these star-like objects are the golden planet Saturn, the red planet Mars, and Regulus – the brightest star in the constellation Leo the Lion. This celestial threesome will set in the west by mid to late evening.
Golden Saturn and reddish Mars lie on opposite sides of silvery-blue Regulus. Saturn is the brightest of these three objects. Saturn, Regulus, and Mars will grace your evening sky for several weeks to come. So if you miss them tonight, look for them sometime soon.
Mars, the faintest member of the threesome, also proves to be the most dynamic. Mars will move right next to Regulus on the evenings of June 30 and July 1, to stage the closest pairing of a planet with a first-magnitude star for all of this year. And Mars doesn’t stop there. On July 10 and 11, Mars will meet up with Saturn to showcase the closest Mars-Saturn conjunction until the year 2022.
So as darkness falls this evening, look for Mars, Regulus and Saturn – all noticeably bright – over your western horizon. Then watch them move in relation to each other in the weeks ahead.
What’s the point in posting a one-year old photo (June 2007) to accompany this article?
Gary, you’re right. This image doesn’t work with this article. Thanks for pointing it out, and we’ll be more careful in the future!
Deborah
graet site,