OTP: Jupiter, Mercury and Mars Nestle in Predawn Skies

Planetary Triple Play on Deck This Weekend: Jupiter, Mercury and Mars
Nestle in Predawn Skies
December 9, 2006 08:09
By SETH BORENSTEIN

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Stargazers will get a rare triple planetary
treat this weekend with Jupiter, Mercury and Mars appearing to nestle
together in the predawn skies. About 45 minutes before dawn on Sunday
those three planets will be so close that the average person's thumb
can obscure all three from view.

They will be almost as close together on Saturday and Monday, but
Sunday they will be within one degree of each other in the sky. Three
planets haven't been that close since 1925, said Miami Space Transit
Planetarium director Jack Horkheimer.

And it won't happen again until 2053, he said.

"Jupiter will be very bright and it will look like it has two bright
lights next to it, and they won't twinkle because they're planets,"
said Horkheimer, host of the television show "Star Gazer. "This is the
kind of an event that turns young children into Carl Sagans."

The planets are actually hundreds of millions of miles apart, but the
way the planets orbit the sun make it appear they are neighbors in the
east-southeastern skies. They'll be visible in most parts of the world
_ in the Western Hemisphere, as far south as Buenos Aires and as far
north as Juneau, Alaska, Horkheimer said.

The experts differ on just how to look at the planets. Horkheimer said
naked-eye viewing is fine, but binoculars or a telescope are even
better.

But if you are going to use a telescope, be careful because the planets
are so close to where the sun will soon rise, if you linger you might
gaze at the sun through the telescope and damage your eyesight, said
Michelle Nichols, master educator at Chicago's Adler Planetarium.

Ed Krupp, director of Los Angeles' Griffith Observatory, cautioned it
will be hard to see the event "with an unaided eye, particularly in an
area that is highly urbanized."

The way to find the planets, which will be low on the east-southeast
horizon, is to hold your arm straight out, with your hand in a fist and
the pinky at the bottom. Halfway up your fist is how high the planets
will appear above the horizon, Nichols said.

Jupiter will be white, Mercury pinkish and Mars butterscotch-colored.

"It is a lovely demonstration of the celestial ballet that goes on
around us, day after day, year after year, millennium after
millennium," said Horkheimer. "When I look at something like this, I
realize that all the powers on Earth, all the emperors, all the money,
cannot change it one iota. We are observers, but the wonderful part of
that is that we are the only species on this planet that can observe it
and understand it."

In ancient times, people thought the close groupings of planets had
deep meaning, said Krupp. Now, he said, "it's absolutely something fun
to look for."

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On the Net:

Where to look for the three planets:
http://www.siennasoft.com/stargazer/1513.shtml