Right Now in the Morning Sky - Jupiter and Venus Close to Each Other
Some of the planets can be seen very well in January, but two of them are in interesting position right now. Venus and Jupiter are located close to each other (from our viewpoint on Earth) and can be observed around one hour before the sunrise in northern hemisphere.
Venus and Jupiter can be seen when looking just above the horizon in South-East sky. See the figure on left side. It is a simulation of the morning sky today, just few hours ago. In this simulation the observer is located in Helsinki in Finland and the observation time is 8:00 am. As the observer watches the horizon in South-East, he/she can see Jupiter and Venus close to each other, located near constellations Scorpius, Ophiuchus and Sagittarius. You can use this chart to find Jupiter and Venus, but notice that the sky may look different from your location and time. Anyhow, with this picture you know at what time and in which direction Jupiter and Venus can be seen.
I discussed about Jupiter and Venus few weeks ago when I wrote about the planets that can be seen in January. As you can see in the comments of that post, Jim from Colorado and Jeff from Toronto have reported their successful observations of Jupiter and Venus. Congratulations Jim and Jeff! Here in Finland it has been raining and snowing for days. Right now it seems to be snowing again, so I might not get a chance to see Jupiter and Venus for few days. This morning Venus and Jupiter were in their best positions. During the next few days they will get more and more apart, Venus going rapidly lower and Jupiter going rapidly higher in the sky. In few days this interesting phenomenon is over.
Oh, and just make sure the weather is good and the sky is clear enough. You need to get up around 6 am, so look out and decide whether you go out, back to bed or straight to work. Tomorrow is Saturday. If the weather remains the same, I will stay in bed!
This article was written by Marko Pyhajarvi and its original location is in HomeboyAstronomy.Com astronomy blog. For more great astronomy articles, please visit HomeboyAstronomy.Com! Share This
I saw the Venus-Jupiter early this morning. It was a spectacular view :).
I saw the Venus-Jupiter conjunction early this morning. It was a spectacular view :).
Hi Erika, very nice to hear that! Congratulations. It is still snowing hard here in Finland and I am going to miss the best moment of the whole thing
Hi, I saw Jupiter Venus a couple of days ago. See them every morning now but indeed they are going more and more apart. From where do I see them. I live in Japan on a 1400 m altitude, looking over the north-east-south valley. I have a spectacular view here of the night sky as well in the mornings. Also a very nice view of Mt. Fuji.
jan-peter, you have an excellent location for skywatching! I must say I am jealous
Do you take photographs of the night sky? It would be great to see your nightsky in pictures.
For me Jupiter and Venus was a bit disappointing. It has been snowing and raining here ever day and therefore I haven’t been able to observe the sky. Last night sky was clear and went out with my kids watching the south-east sky (Orion and others), but in the morning it was snowing again.
Hi Marco,
until now I never made photo
’s of the night sky but I might. Yes, the location here is perfect. There are many people in the neighborhood who have a telescope. I don’t have one yet but it is somewhere high on the list. we had a very clear few days around the beginning of this month but since the last two days it has been snowing a lot. So, not much view at the moment. I putted your blog in the RSS so I will keep informed with what you are doing. Keep up the interesting information.
jan-peter, no problem. If you ever happen to shoot pictures of your night sky and wish to publish them in this blog, just send me email and we’ll do it. You definitely have an excellent location for skywatching, no doubt.
Thanks for subscribing to my RSS feed. It is surely an easy way to keep yourself updated with what happens in this blog. I am glad you enjoy my articles, and I hope I can provide useful articles in the future as well.
I am in Iraq and at about 6:00 one morning I noticed two planets sitting low in the sky, side by side, just above the breaking dawn. Each morning after that I watched as one of the planets rose up and across the sky and the other seemed to just hover on the horizon. Was that Jupiter and Venus? If so, is that Jupiter that rose and Venus that stayed low? I am going to write home (Washington,DC) about this beautiful sight and I want to get my facts straight.
Also, I saw the lunar eclipse this morning. It is the first one I have ever seen at dawn. The moon was peachy pink on the bottom and dark blue at the top. It was really amazing. I wish I had a camera with a zoom feature!!!
Hi Linda, most probably that was Jupiter and Venus. Could you just tell in which direction you saw the planets? As you are located in Iraq, then you probably saw them in South-East, right? If you saw the bright planets in that direction, you saw Jupiter and Venus for sure.
Nice to hear that you saw also the eclipse last night! I did not see anything due to clouds, which is a pity. I am happy you saw it. As you can see in link below, it really looks fabulous.
http://homeboyastronomy.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/lunar_eclipse_series.jpg
I’m in Iraq and I always see a bright star at night, along with the moon… is that Venus, or Mars?
Thanks.
Russ
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