Friday October 2nd if you are a morning type look toward the eastern horizon before sunrise for the inner planet Venus to be about 1o from the ‘heart’ of Leo the Lion, the star Regulus. Look westward, you can’t miss it, for the the just past full Harvest Moon, the waning gibbous Moon, to be within 9o from the planet Mars as the two prepare to set a couple of hours after sunrise local time.
If you can wait, later that day, watch for the Moon and Mars as they rise together a couple of hours after sunset and are separated by about 1o from one another.
Keep on eye on the outer planets Jupiter and Saturn. Jupiter being closer to the Sun than Saturn orbits more quickly and so it is steadily catching up with Saturn for a very close conjunction toward the end of December.
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.
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Over the course of 3 days, May 1st through the 3rd the 9 to 11-day old waxing gibbous Moon will traverse the constellation Leo the Lion. On the evening of May 1st the 9-day old waxing gibbous Moon will be a few degrees from the heart of the Lion, the star Regulus. This star is at the bottom of the backward question-mark pattern forming the head of the Lion.
Two days later, on the evening of May 3rd, the 11-day old waxing gibbous Moon will be a few degrees from the tail of the Lion, the star Denebola. This star is the eastern point of a triangle pattern with two stars further to the west, right, from Denebola.
Here is an interesting article by John Heasley, “
