Starting with Wednesday November 27th and continuing for the next several days the ‘Red Planet’ Mars will pass within about 3-4o from the blue-white star Spica in Virgo the Harvest Maiden. This animated graphic is set for 5:30 am CST at 1-day intervals starting with November 27th and ending on December 3rd.
Jupiter is several degrees further east from Mars but by this time of the morning Jupiter will have just risen.
Those familiar with the starry sky probably have heard the mnemonic “Follow the Arc to Arcturus, then speed to Spica” as a way to use the stars forming the curved handle (the ‘Arc’) of the Big Dipper as a guide to the reddish star Arcturus and then Spica. Read a bit more about following the arc from a previous post.
Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for monthly observing information, or here to return to bobs-spaces.
