Deal of Venus, Moon offer early bird skywatching

Early risers will be treated to a suggestive view celeste early next week as the two brightest objects in the night sky — Moon and Venus — will appear near to each other.

Venus and the moon appears low in the eastern sky-Southeast Monday and Tuesday. For U.S. skywatchers, they will rise over the horizon at about 4: 30 a.m. local time and should be in a good position to be displayed approximately 60-90 minutes later in Alba spinning.

This map of the sky of Venus and the Moon shows as they appear during appearances of morning next week.

See Venus and the Moon
Monday morning, Venus will be located about 7 degrees in the lower left of the Moon Waxing. On Tuesday, a slightly thinner moon appears a bit closer to Venus, sitting around 4 degrees to the left of the planet. [Photo: our moon change]

Keep in mind that the disputed measures clenched fist arm length about 10 degrees wide. So on Tuesday, the Moon and Venus will appear separated by less than half of a fist.

If you plan to arrive early to see this pair catchy, make sure you don't have any obstacles such as trees or buildings in your path, as they will be pretty low in the sky.

Venus is in the sky
Venus is now on the rise around the beginning of morning twilight. Although it is only about half as bright as it was during the greatest sagacity last December, is still an impressive sight as it comes up in the East-South-East.

Venus rises to about 2 hours before the Sun on Tuesday, but that will be reduced to only about 80 minutes 31 March. While unmistakably bright, is rather low in the sky at dawn.

Dawn in early March, Venus is less than 20 degrees high as seen from locations around 40 degrees north latitude, and every week it sinks a little lower.

Venus moves from Sagittarius to Capricorn on 2nd March. As it goes through the stars of Capricorn, we will have our last chance until December to observe the planet against a dark background and stars.

With binoculars, watch it go 4 degrees south of the star Beta Capricorni, 5 March and 0.7 degrees north of the Stella Theta on 13 March. Venus will enter weak constellation of Aquarius on March 25th.

Between one half and the end of this year, Venus will make a complete circuit of the zodiac. A telescope will reveal its shape Crescent.

The planet is now flee brilliant in front of Earth in his travel around the Sun. But its 22 miles to second motion is only slightly faster than 19 mps of the Earth. This year Venus takes about seven months to pass behind the Sun as seen from our platform motion in space.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes of astronomy for the New York Times and other publications, and he is also a meteorologist on camera to News 12 Westchester, New York.

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