News Planet Alignment

For those brave enough to be out in the wild, with short days and cooler nights....Or you could go out your front door

AN ALIGNMENT OF PLANETS: When the sun goes down tonight, go outside and look southwest. Venus, Saturn and Jupiter are lined up in the twilight sky. Marek Nikodem sends this picture from Szubin, Poland:



This is a special week for the alignment because the Moon is joining the show. The action begins tonight when the thin crescent Moon passes by Venus for an exquisite conjunction. Each night the Moon will join a different planet: Dec. 6th Venus, Dec. 7th Saturn, Dec. 8th Jupiter. On Dec. 9th and 10th, the Moon and planets will stretch themselves into a dramatic straight line across the southwestern sky.

You don't need a telescope to see the show. Everything is visible to the naked eye even from brightly-lit cities. Try to catch the planets before the sunset sky fades completely black. Conjunctions framed by the colors of twilight are out of this world. Sky maps: Dec. 6, Dec. 7, Dec. 8, Dec. 9, Dec. 10.