Morning sky will offer you planets, moon
Lord knows we're all busy in the morning, trying to beat the clock and traffic to get to work.
If you have a chance, though, and the clouds stay away, there's a celestial traffic jam in the predawn eastern sky between the waning crescent moon, the planets Venus and Saturn, and the bright star Regulus. They won't exactly be honking their horns or engaging in celestial road rage, but they'll be putting on a nice show early this week.
This will be worth at least a glance right around 6:15, just before the sun comes up. But if you have a little more time you may want to take in the scene as you sip your coffee and chomp on your cornflakes.
If you're already on the road by that time, hopefully you see the show through your windshield — that is, if you're headed east on your daily commute. But watch out for that guy in front of you!
Monday morning, just below the waning crescent moon, you'll see a moderately bright "star" that's actually the planet Saturn. A little below and to the left of Saturn, about the width of your fist at arm's length will be a somewhat fainter star — and this one is actually a star — Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo the Lion. The sky will be so bright after 6 a.m., though, all you'll see of Leo is Regulus, a mere 450 trillion miles away!
A little farther down to the lower left of Regulus will be the bright planet Venus, hugging the horizon. In fact, you won't even see Venus if your view of the eastern horizon is covered by trees or buildings. I hope that's not the case.
On Tuesday morning at the same time, the moon will have shifted about halfway between Saturn and Regulus and the crescent moon will be a little thinner.
Wednesday morning will find an even thinner moon about halfway from Regulus to Venus. On Thursday morning, the first day of autumn around 6:15 a.m., the moon will be parked less than one degree to the right of the Venus, and will be the thinnest crescent you've ever seen — that is, if you can see it all. Give it a try, though, it could be some real eye candy.
The reason the moon shifts a little eastward from morning to morning is because our lunar partner orbits our Earth every 27.3 days. As it does, the angle between the Earth, moon and the sun is constantly changing, causing the changing shape of the moon to go from crescent shape in the evening to a full moon about two weeks later, and then back to a crescent in the opposite direction in the early morning.
All the light we see from the moon is just reflected sunlight and early this week just a tiny portion of the sunlit part of the moon will be in our direction.
However, if the sky is clear and dry enough, especially on Monday and Tuesday morning, you might see the entire disk of the moon. By far the brightest part of the moon will be the crescent that's in direct sunlight, but the rest of the moon's disk may be visible in a pale, grayish light. That's called earthshine — but it's actually second-hand sunshine, bouncing from the Earth and then on to the moon. It can be a wonderful sight!
Also have a look-see at Saturn through at least a small telescope, even though it'll be a little fuzzy. That's because Saturn is now a little over 900 million miles away, which is far for the ringed wonder of our solar system. And Saturn's so close to the horizon, forcing us to look through more of Earth's obscuring atmosphere.
It's worth a look, though, because you'll see some of Saturn's ring system. After next February, though, Saturn will be a lot closer to the Earth and will be available much higher in the sky.
Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis, and author of the book, "Pennsylvania Starwatch," available at bookstores and at his Web site www.lynchandthestars.com.
