Stunning view of Venus, Mercury and the Moon

Thanks to the 2008 Australian Sky Guide, I knew there would be a wonderful gathering in the Eastern sky this morning. Sure enough the crescent Moon, Venus and Mercury were sitting there in the constellation of Capricorn. Interestingly the planet Neptune was just below the Moon but it was too faint to show up in the glow of twilight.

moon-venus-6-march-08.jpg

But of course another even better opportunity is just around the corner. On March 28 at around 6:30am three planets will be together. Mercury and Venus will be joined by the faint, but photgraphically visble, Uranus. Each will be about 1.5 degrees from each other or about the 1.5 pinkies width apart. A pinky (little finger) at arms length for most adults is about 1 degree or twice the width of the Moon.

If you manage to get a good photo of the March 28 gathering then why not send it to me and I’ll post it on the blog. Good luck.

2 Responses to “Stunning view of Venus, Mercury and the Moon”

  1. thea lloyd  on March 6th, 2008

    i too watched the display this morning from the bush 100 kms south of Darwin. i just saw the moon, venus and mercury all in a row going up the sky. (can someone please explain which is venus, and which mercury?)
    not knowing didnt spoil the pleasure however.
    i seem to get the most beautiful sky shows. – the wet does let up sometimes. ;-)
    tooroo.
    thea.

  2. Geoff  on March 6th, 2008

    Hi Thea

    The very bright one just above and to the right is Venus and the fainter one higher up is Mercury.

    Cheers
    Geoff


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