- Southern Hemisphere Sky Events

Planets continue to gather above the Western horizon

Even if you are only a casual skywatcher, you may have noticed something strange happening in the sky in the evening twilight above the Western horizon. You will have noticed that a number of ‘stars’ appear to be moving towards each other.

Finder chart for Wednesday 4 August 2010. Look above the Western horizon as evening twilight ends.

What you are noticing is a line of sight effect as four of the five planets visible to the unaided eye (Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn) appear to close in on each other. In reality, they are nowhere near each other and are moving peacefully along in their own orbits.

Finder chart for Thursday 12 August 2010. Look above the Western horizon as evening twilight ends.

The sight will continue to improve and change over the next few weeks. Next week will be particularly impressive when the four planets are briefly joined by the crescent Moon (see above finder chart). Keep in mind that you don’t need a telescope to enjoy the above view. Mind you, if you do own a telescope, dust it off and look at Saturn. Even a small telescope will resolve the rings of Saturn. You may not see the rings looking like photographs in books. At present the rings look more like a thin line due to their current orientation relative to the Earth.

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3 thoughts on “Planets continue to gather above the Western horizon

  1. Thanks,
    Very useful as doing Earth and Beyond and moon observations this month.

  2. Barbara,

    Glad you found the post of interest. Given you are covering the Moon topic this month, you may wish to use my Moon phase flipcharts so that you can show the changing appearance of the Moon over a lunar month. I have produced one for both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. As an extention you may wish to challenge students to work out why the Moon appears upside down from the other hemisphere.

    The Moon flipcharts can be found in the ‘Fun activities’ section of this website.

  3. I’m also very thankful that you’ve shared your information re the planets ‘gathering on the western horizon’. I will be giving my Year 3 students (who’ve been studying the moon and the Solar System) your Moon flip book so they can each make their own flip book to keep and enjoy .
    Love your ‘work’.
    Thanks
    Cheers
    PS I also share your emails etc with my ‘Aeronautical/Aerospace lecturer’ husband who is also a fan of Astronomy.

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