Aligned planets team with meteor showers
The morning skies are definitely worth waking up for this week as we're seeing both the closest conjunction of three planets for the next 46 years and we'll also get to enjoy the Geminid meteor shower, which reaches its peak this week.
The planet cluster involves the planets Mars, Mercury, and Jupiter, and while it's something you can see with the naked eye the next few mornings, you will have to be in the right place at the right time.
The right time is during early morning twilight. Before that time the planets won't be high enough above the horizon to see, and after that time the twilight will wash them out.
The right place to look is in the low east-southeastern sky, only about five degrees above the horizon, or about half of the width of your fist at arm's length. To see the planet cluster you'll need to have a low, treeless horizon in that direction. The best place to take in the cluster is on a hilltop.
I know you'll like what you'll see. The next couple of mornings, the planets will be huddled in a tight little triangle less than one degree across. Just your thumbnail alone held at arm's length will cover all three of these worlds!
As the week goes on, the planets will go their separate ways and the cluster will break up. The brightest planet is Jupiter, Mercury is in second place and Mars is a distant third. Honestly, you'll probably have to strain your eyes a little to see Mars, which, by the way, will be making another close approach to Earth about this time next year.
Conjunctions regularly occur, since the planets in our solar system orbit the sun in nearly the same plane, thus following the same path among the stars in our skies. This conjunction is a rare one, though, since we have three planets and the conjunction is such a tight one.
Usually when three planets come together in our skies like this they aren't nearly this close. In fact, a three-way planet conjunction this close won't take place again until 2053. I don't know about you, but I'll be 97 years old! I'm playing it safe and looking at the cluster early this week. Better not be cloudy!
It's appropriate that we see such a pretty planet conjunction at this time of the year since many astronomers believed that the original Christmas star was actually a close conjunction of the two planets Jupiter and Saturn.
An added attraction in our morning skies this week will be the annual Geminid meteor shower, one of the best of the year. It peaks on early Wednesday morning but you can see at least some "shooting stars," or meteors, every morning this coming week.
If you are reasonably far away from heavy city lightning, you may see more than 50 meteors per hour after midnight. If you have really dark, clear skies that number may approach 100.
These Geminid meteors will radiate across the sky from the general direction of the constellation Gemini, which will be in the high western sky. Bundle up, cover yourself with a warm blanket or a quilt and lie back on a lawn chair, rolling your eyes all around the sky.
The only thing that could hamper the meteor shower this week is the waning moon spreading unwanted light into the heavens. It rises after midnight in the east.
By Wednesday morning, though, the moon will have shrunk to a crescent and shouldn't shed too much light 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.
