Watching the Dance of the Planets

For the next two weeks every early morning you will be treated to a celestial choreography.
Watch the eastern pre-dawn sky at 6:00 – 6:15 every morning starting tomorrow. Venus/Saturn are close; Spica to the upper right, Arc to the upper left; Mercury down low to the horizon in line with the two planets.

Over in the west note bright Jupiter. Now watch how the tableau changes every morning – Saturn will zoom past Venus; Mercury will rise up from the horizon, all will stretch into a line.

Planets in a beautiful line Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon morning. Then, the Moon will simultaneously rise up from the west, slide past Jupiter and march across the sky and slide down past Spica, Saturn, Venus, then Mercury.

All in the next two weeks. Amazing! Really a function of Earth’s, Venus’ Mercury’s and the moon’s motions. Spectacular!

Also, exploring the geometry and movement of planetary observations.

Lunar Eclipse Wednesday
The Moon enters penumbra at 7:15 a.m. EST but will not be visible to us. Where? Full lunar eclipse seen out in Hawaii; generally the further west one is the more one will see. We’ll have five eclipses next year, two solar, three lunar – but…. none good for us. Next time we can see a total lunar eclipse in the continental US? August. 21, 2017, from Oregon to South Carolina.