Early Morning Planets

[employee2-4601]

The alarm went off at 05.00 this morning and I was about to hurl the clock across the room when I remembered why I'd set it for such an ungodly hour in the first place.

As everyone out there will know, Jupiter, Mars and Venus have been in very close proximity to each other in the early morning sky over the past couple of months. As their respective orbits take them farther apart, I wanted to take the opportunity to test out my new EPs on them.

Somehow, I managed to get all my gear downstairs without waking the rest of the household and set up in the garden. There was some cloud cover to the west, but fortunately my three targets were in an expanse of lovely clear sky. Venus was, as always, incredibly bright and it was very easy to see the current phase. Mars is a lot fainter these days and, to be honest, I didn't linger too long on it as there wasn't a huge amount to see compared with previous mornings. Jupiter, on the other hand, was a feast for the eyes. Using a 12mm EP, I could see three of the Galilean moons (can't be sure which one was hiding, though based on the chart in last month's Sky At Night magazine, it could have been Europa). Not only that, but two of the atmospheric bands were very distinct - one in the northern and one in the southern hemispheres.

By this time the clouds were starting to roll in yet again (I think I can be forgiven for believing in a conspiracy to prevent my spending too much time on my new hobby). However, there was one last treat which I didn't expect. A very bright object was moving at a fair old lick from west to east. I managed to align the scope and manually track it as it sailed past the three planets and down behind the hills. It was, as I'm sure some will have guessed, the ISS. It had a lovely orange-red glow to it and I finally packed my gear up feeling very satisfied with my morning's work.

I'm now trying to decide between cereal or a bacon sandwich for breakfast - oh the tough decisions we stargazers face...

(I've attached a photo I took using my iPhone of Venus and Mars - not much to see, I'm afraid, but I'm still saving for a decent camera so I can try a bit of astrophotography)

[leo82]

Hi employee,

I also had a look at venus, jupiter and mars this morning. They really stood out in the dark clear sky didn't they. I only used my naked eye but that was all I needed to appreciate the view. The fog has rolled in now and all evidence is lost until tomorrow, hopefully.

[laudropb]

Very nice report and photo. Unfortunate we still have rain and ever present clouds. Thanks for posting.