Dance of the dawn planets: see Venus, Mars and Jupiter with the naked eye this week
A stunning celestial treat awaits skywatchers who are up at the crack of dawn over the next week as three of the brightest planets dance in the morning sky.
High in the east just before sunrise, planets Jupiter, Venus and Mars huddle together appearing as bright star-like objects that will pass each other in the sky over the course of the next few days.
On October 29 through 30, the three planets will cluster within 5 degrees of each other – so close that you can easily cover all three planets with just your fist held at arm’s length. Venus, Jupiter and Mars have not appeared this close together in Earth’s skies since 1991 and won’t again until the year 2111.
But keen onlookers who keep tabs on the morning planetary show will notice that Venus is slowly sinking in the sky every day, and closing in on Mars. In fact starting on Sunday November 1, and over the following three mornings, Venus will be having an especially close encounter with the Red Planet. The two worlds will be at their closest on November 2 and 3, separated by less than 1 degree, which means they can both simultaneously be covered by only a thumb held at arm’s length. Such an eye-pleasing sky event promises to make for a great photo opportunity too.
All this cosmic action takes place before sunrise and best views are in the pre-dawn hours while the skies are still dark. Observers should find a location that has clear, unobstructed views of the eastern horizon. All three planets will appear to rise about three hours before local sunrise and continue to climb the sky. Everyone across Canada with clear skies should have a chance to catch a least some of the show.
The planets are so bright that there is no need for any binoculars or telescopes, in that they are easily visible to the unaided eyes even from light-polluted cities. However binoculars can offer impressive views of the Venus-Mars pairing, and if held steadily enough, the four major moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Known as the Galilean moons, they are collectively named after the famous 17th century astronomer Galileo, who first discovered them through his newly invented telescope. A small backyard telescope can reveal Jupiter’s clouds and storms. Spy Venus up close, and it will appear like a miniature version of a half-lit Moon.
While the planetary trio may appear close together in our sky, they each run along very different orbits at varying distances from the Sun, and so their proximity to each other is simply an optical illusion that occurs as they appear to briefly line up behind each other like a crooked row of billiard balls, from our vantage point here on Earth.
Venus is the brightest of the trio, and is 107 million kilometres from Earth. Since it is the closest to the Sun, it never appears far from the Sun either since its orbit is closer to it than Earth’s. That’s why when we see Venus in the evenings: it is in the west and follows and sets within an hour or so after the Sun. Other times we can see Venus in the morning in the east, rising an hour or so before the Sun.
Then there is much fainter and redder Mars, which is the fourth planet from the Sun, and now sits more than three times further away from Earth than Venus, at 332 million kilometres. Lastly, Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system appears perched above the planetary duo this week, at nearly 900 million kilometres distant. It’s amazing to think that this gas giant is so large that it could swallow 1000 Earths, yet is so far away that light from it takes 74 minutes to reach our eyes.
Since we are well into the fall season and the weather is unpredictable, we can only hope for clear skies, but since this planetary morning show is happening over the course of so many days, chances are good that there will be at least one or two mornings with clear skies for us to soak in this rare meeting of neighbouring worlds. Definitely something to wake up early for!