A waning crescent Moon can be seen from the sky at predawn this weekend but with the unique appearance of Venus, Mars, and Jupiter. It will be possible for everyone – if weather contributes to us with a clear and unobstructed view – to presence this astronomical show at the southeast sky in a single glance.
But, where will be the exact position of these planets to see them in the sky? Well, this Saturday morning the moon will have under it – a few degrees away – Venus, while Mars will be above it with a really small shine compared to Venus’ shining intensity (about 250 times more than Mars). “Where’s Jupiter?” you might be wondering. Jupiter will be really far away from the other three at the southeastern sky, just left and above the moon.
This is, as you might think at the beginning that, this is an unusual event – and you were right – where we can see three planets and the moon nearly together in the same sky area. How, from Earth we’re seeing this one-of-a-kind phenomenon? Each planet moves at their own speed and following their own track, and they’re now at a point where all the five – Earth included – are on a same “track” and it let us see the other four at certain hour – a mid-dark and starry background that help us to see this Out-of-this-planet experience.
This planetary line is also called “Ecliptic” where, as explained before, is a path-like where the sun makes his appearance to take the sky as consequence of Earth’s move around it.
But wait, what about the Moon? Doesn’t it orbit too with the Earth? Yeah it does. Also the other planets orbit too but did you know they don’t differ greatly from Earth but now they will be visible from sky – relatively close to our ecliptic line, so that’s why we can see the other planets plus moon at predawn.
Is this the first time this happens?
The only “evidence” we got from ancient times is that men back then were really thoughtful of planets and stars but there isn’t a report of this happening before, therefore we can’t say it’s the first time it happens. When there was a proof that these “bright stars” – how planets were called before – moved in a magical way like they were gods – A bit mythological, wasn’t it? –
Source: The Crestone Eagle