dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (12/03/85)
There are three planets in the predawn sky. More on Mercury, Saturn and Venus -- after this. December 3 Three Planets Before the sun comes up on Wednesday, use binoculars to sweep low in the eastern sky. Venus should be visible to the eye as a bright object, very near the horizon. Mercury and Saturn are there, too -- but you'll probably need binoculars to see them. If you can see all three, you'll find that they make a tiny triangle of planets, low in the east before dawn on Wednesday. Brilliant Venus is about to disappear in the glare of dawn, as it flees to the far side of the sun from Earth. Saturn passed behind the sun last month -- so last month, it was in the daytime sky. Now we're starting to gain on Saturn in orbit again -- and this world is rising shortly before the sun at dawn. Meanwhile, Mercury is on the same side of the solar system as we are. It passed us, on the near side of the sun, late last month. So Mercury is on this side of the solar system -- and Saturn and Venus are on the far side. But all three worlds are now located along the same line of sight as seen from Earth. The three worlds make in a little triangle on Wednesday -- with two points in the triangle, Mercury and Saturn, visible only through binoculars. Venus will soon sink into the sun's glare. But Mercury and Saturn will be rising earlier -- to be visible to the eye -- near each other -- pretty high in the east before dawn in the week before Christmas. Watch for them if you're outside. Script by Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1984, 1985 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin