It’s a good week for anyone who’s back yard has unobstructed views to the west and south. For those who like a challenge, Jupiter, Venus and Mercury say their goodbyes over the next few days, the first two taking it a step further, with a hug, on Saturday. Venus will pass so close to Jupiter earlier that afternoon that the two planets, in reality separated by almost 500 million kilometers, will appear as one. It will require a good set of binoculars to separate them before it gets embarrassing.
Sunset is at 7:49 on the 25th, and a full 13 minutes earlier on the 31st. To spot the trio of planets, you have to be out as the Sun sets. They will appear just above the western horizon, and set only 30-45 minutes after the Sun in the bright twilight. Binoculars will help a lot, but you can use them only if you promise, for safety reasons, to leave them out of reach until the Sun has completely set. I’m not kidding, here: *completely* set.
In a week, Jupiter and Mercury will be lost behind the Sun, while Venus will slowly climb the western sky awaiting encounters with Saturn in late October and Mars in late January.
Not challenging at all, Mars and Saturn form a nice line in the south, with Mars currently lying four degrees below Saturn and two degrees above the red giant Antares (alpha Scorpii). The trio are easy to find as they are the first ‘stars’ to appear low in the south each evening. Anyone who might have been paying attention over the last few weeks would have noticed that that’s not where Mars was in late July. Mars has begun moving eastward rapidly, fast enough that you can see its location change daily, especially with Saturn and Antares as a reference.
One of the things I’ve always found fascinating when looking at the sky is that all these lines and groupings of objects are an illusion. As mentioned above, Venus and Jupiter will appear to touch when they are actually hundreds of millions of kilometers apart. The third member of the group, Mercury, appearing just below the other two, really is near Venus, just as it appears. Mars and Saturn have been chummy all summer, but in reality are twice as far apart as Venus and Jupiter. Then there’s Antares, appearing to hang out with Saturn and Mars, but actually living some four thousand trillion kilometers further away.
While it’s currently the planets calling for our attention, once the stars start to appear (earlier each night these days), the night sky holds many other interesting object that can be enjoyed without a lot of effort or expense. There’s always more than meets the eye, and it’s all available from your own back yard.
