Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Five Planets in the Morning Sky (January and February 2016)

All five planets visible to the naked eye are in the morning sky. If you have a low eastern horizon, and a clear sky, here's what you might see at 5:50 to 6:10 am:

(UPDATE: I added a new composite photographed on 30 Jan)


Old composite: 


(Click the picture, if necessary, to enlarge it)

Mercury is below the house in this picture, but all others are shown. I labelled a couple stars too. Note the Antares looks like Mars, and that is the origin of its name (the opposite or rival of Ares/Mars). The moon will be waning and each day moving eastward approximately along the curve outlined by these planets.

And, of course, by visible to the naked eye, I'm not counting Earth.

jg