I got watching PBS last night and they were telling me to watch the stars cause there will be 3 planets lined up with our moon.I would like to say it will was Jupiter&Mars and one other.
Do you know which planets they are Daena?
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Horkheimer: greetings, greetings fellow star gazers. Please mark every day beginning Monday February 16th through Sunday the 22nd as the mornings you'll make it a point to look eastward 30 minutes before sunrise for a celestial ballet of three planets and a crescent Moon. All of which will occur just as it's getting light out on these crisp chilly February mornings. Let me show you.
O.K., we've got our skies set up for dawn Monday February 16th facing east southeast and if you have a very clear and very flat unobstructed horizon you will see three planets very close to the horizon. Two of them will be side-by-side and only nine-tenths of one degree apart, which means that slightly less than two full Moons could fit between them because one full Moon is half a degree wide. The brightest of the two is the king of them all, 88,000 mile wide Jupiter, a planet so huge we could line up eleven of our 8 thousand mile wide Earths across its middle.
Just to its right and half the size as our planet Earth, rouge gold Mars, it is the second smallest planet only 4,000 miles wide, which means we could line up 22 Mars side by side across Jupiter's middle. Then to complete our trio, look above them and to their right for the tiniest planet of them all, 3,000 mile wide Mercury, which means it would take almost 30 Mercurys lined up to reach across Jupiter's middle. Think of it the two smallest planets Mercury and Mars, and the biggest planet Jupiter all huddled together in a very small space, Jupiter and Mars not quite two full Moons apart and Mercury about 14 full Moons away.
But the planet show is just beginning because if you go out each successive day you'll notice them change their positions. In fact on Tuesday February 17th Jupiter and Mars will be even closer to each other, less than one half a degree or one full Moon apart. Wow! But then things really change dramatically as Jupiter and Mercury move toward each other and Mars moves away: Wednesday the 18th, Thursday the 19th, Friday the 20th. Then on Saturday February 21st they will form an exquisite trio and be joined by a beautiful waning crescent Moon. But if I had to pick one day I'd pick Sunday the 22nd because then an even closer and skinnier crescent Moon, and the three planets will be lined up almost in a straight row in a breathtaking sight. Of course they will all be much easier to see and look much brighter if you use a pair of binoculars, which is my favorite viewing device.
Once again, beginning Monday February 16th Jupiter and Mars are close and Mercury is up to the right. On Tuesday the 17th Jupiter and Mars are at their closest only one full Moon apart, then each day Jupiter and Mercury race toward each other and leave poor old Mars in the dust. On Saturday February 21st they are joined by a crescent Moon but my favorite day is Sunday the 22nd when the four of them will line up and knock your socks off! Mark your calendar and get out your binoculars and long johns. Keep looking up!
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