Mercury bright in morning sky

Mercury is currently putting on an appearance in the morning sky for northern hemisphere observers, so if you've never seen the innermost planet then now is your chance. Don't hang around though because these opportunities only last a few days before the planet retreats once more into the glare close to the Sun. You may be surprised at how easy it is to spot, shining at magnitude -1. I spotted Mercury for the third time in four days this morning and it presented a wonderful scene, lying just a few degrees from a very fine crescent Moon that it was itself a little more than 40 hours from new. The reason why now is a good opportunity to see Mercury from our part of the world is because the planet lies higher above the horizon than it would at other times of the year at an elongation. This is because the ecliptic - the path along which the planets travel - is steeply inclined to the eastern horizon at this time of year. Look to the south-south-east as the dawn sky is brightening. I got my view of Mercury from the south-west of London at around 6am local time today (0600 UT). In the evening sky, you can spot the other inner planet, Venus, which is steadily moving away from the Sun. You will need a clear horizon at the moment as it is quite low, but conditions get better and better over the next few weeks. Fir mire details of what is on view in the sky right now, see our monthly sky map. Picture: A screen grab from Starry Night shows Mercury and the Moon on the morning of 27 October. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com • Skymania welcomes your comments on our stories! For more space reading, check out the Skymania stores in the USA, the UK, Canada and France. They are powered by Amazon so you can buy with confidence.

Venus and Jupiter in double dazzle

Two bright planets, Venus and Jupiter, will come together for a spectacular pairing in the sky this Friday morning. They will lie less than two moon's widths apart when they rise in the early morning sky before dawn. The rare conjunction means that early risers will be able to hide both behind the tip of a finger held at arm's length. Best time to look from the UK and Ireland will be around 7am as the two planets lift above the horizon to the south-east. Venus is the brighter of the two and will lie above Jupiter. Robin Scagell, of the UK's Society for Popular Astronomy, said: "These two planets are both bright and will make a dazzling sight to brighten up a cold winter's morning. "They will be obvious to everyone and you don't need to be a stargazer or have a telescope to enjoy the view!" Look across to the right and you will see the crescent Moon close to Antares, brightest star in Scorpius. On February 4, the Moon will be close to Venus and Jupiter, making an attractive grouping in the sky. Read more about this conjunction from Nasa. The image above, showing the scene at 7.10am from southern England, was produced with the planetarium program Starry Night. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com • Skymania welcomes your comments on our stories! For more space reading, check out the Skymania stores in the USA, the UK, Canada and France. They are powered by Amazon so you can buy with confidence.

How to find Venus in daylight

A daylight Venus and the Moon in June The planet Venus is currently shining brilliantly in the pre-dawn sky. This world, the next closest to the Sun after the Earth, is fascinating to view through a small telescope because it shows phases like the Moon. You will not see anything of its surface, however, because Venus is permanently shrouded in cloud. By all accounts that surface is as close a place to hell as can be imagined, which may seem surprising considering its jewel-like beauty. Venus's clouds are highly reflective of sunlight which is why it shines so brightly. It appears as the third brightest object in the heavens after the Sun and Moon. It is so bright, in fact, that you do not need to rise at an unearthly hour to see it - Venus is visible in broad daylight to the unaided eye. This may come as a surprise because we are not used to glancing up and seeing our neighbour planet in a daytime sky. The problem is that it is not obvious when the Sun is drowning out everything else in the sky and so you need to know exactly where to look. It is also difficult for the eyes to focus on the planet when they are just gazing into an indistinct sky-blue canvas. I have followed Venus through the daytime sky on a number of occasions. It has certainly been easier in parts of the world with clear blue skies, such as Provence in the south of France, rather than the UK with its customary milky skies, but even under such conditions it is possible thanks to Venus's brightness. One way to keep Venus in view is to wait for a time when the Moon lies close to it in the sky. A planetarium-style computer program can help here - fire it up and see where Venus lies relative to the horns of the Moon (which will always be a crescent if near the planet). Because of its size, the Moon is a lot easier to spot in daylight, so it can help to find the Moon and then use it to locate Venus when nearby. I last used this technique on June 18, shortly after Venus was actually occulted by, or hidden behind, the Moon from the UK, and the planet was an easy object to spot. The photo above was taken a couple of hours after the occultation ended as the Moon was moving away. One interesting observation made clear in the photo is to note how much brighter Venus is, area for area, than the Moon. Our natural satellite's dark, rocky surface is a much poorer reflector of sunlight than Venus's clouds. We should be grateful for that or we would see little of the sky's fainter inhabitants when the Moon was in the sky! If you are looking for Venus in daylight, then hiding the glare of the Sun behind a building or tree will help. And the obligatory warning to beginners: NEVER sweep for Venus with binoculars in daylight if there is any danger of accidentally pointing them at the Sun! You could be blinded. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, Skymania.com • Skymania welcomes your comments on our stories! For more space reading, check out the Skymania stores in the USA, the UK, Canada and France. They are powered by Amazon so you can buy with confidence.

Venus and Saturn in close encounter

Two bright planets are closing in for a spectacular rendezvous in the evening sky this weekend. Ringed wonder Saturn and the more brilliant Venus will be just two-thirds of a degree apart - a little more than the width of the Moon - at their closest. Catch the pair in the darkening twilight. You will find them just to the west of the sickle shape that forms the head of the Zodiacal constellation Leo. The sky map here, produced with Starry Night Pro, shows the grouping from mid-northern latitudes at 21.25 UT on June 30. Saturn will lie just to the upper left of Venus, as seen in northern skies. If you have a short-focus telescope that gives a wide-angle view at low powers, you might be able to see Saturn's rings and the crescent phase of Venus in the same field of view. ©PAUL SUTHERLAND, SpaceStories.com