They have been very noticeable. Mars has been approaching Regulus, and they were very close last night (Monday) in the northwestern sky.
Yes, quite beautiful!
Did you get a chance to see a fifth “moon” of Jupiter this and the next few mornings? Click here and scroll to June 7th for the name of the “moon”.
So that’s what that is! I figured one of them had to be Mars, but it surprised me that they appeared to be in exactly the same position two nights in a row… I guess Mars doesn’t move very fast.
When it (a planet) is close to a bright star, spend a week or so tracking it from night to night. Sometimes it does move quite noticeably depending on the orbital mechanics of earth and the planet, other times it may seem stationary for a period time. Also, Saturn (close to the magnitude of Regulus) is about half way between Spica and Regulus…southeast from the Mars and Regulus pairing, and will move much slower amongst the stars than Mars and speedier Venus.
Watch Mars appoach Saturn for the conjunction at or near July 29th/30th. A week after that, Venus moves in with the pair for a spectacular triple conjunction! How’s that for getting an idea about planet mechanics?
Another neat way to visualize the movement between the planets amongst the stars is to use Sky & Telescopes free interactive sky chart. Just register for it…it’s free and they don’t spam you with other sales stuff unless you want updates and sales stuff.
Another instance is coming where Venus creates a “straight line” with Pollux and Castor which will happen on June 11th.
Yes, I’ve got all of these marked in my calendar.
Star Date said they’d make a nice pairing tonight in the Western sky.
Unfortunately the sun doesn’t even set until after 2100, and my weekdays start very early.
We have the advantage of winter here and we’re very close to our earliest sunset of the year, so we get to see the pairing by about 5.30pm.
Mars is bright tonight.
The sun just set a few minutes ago. Still plenty bright out. But overcast to the West and about 8/10 coverage overhead with westerly winds.