dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (07/13/85)
The moon is near a bright star and a planet Sunday morning. More -- right after this. July 13 Star, Planet, Moon Sunday morning -- if you're looking for a serene beginning to the day -- go outside and look in the east for a star, a planet and the crescent moon. The star's name is Aldebaran. And the planet is Venus. You can easily see Aldebaran, Venus and the moon, because they're all very bright -- the brightest and most noticeable things in the sky before dawn. Behind Aldebaran, along the same line of sight, there's a star cluster that may be visible Sunday morning if you have a dark-enough sky. The cluster is called the Hyades -- and it's shaped like the letter V in our sky. Aldebaran is located 68 light-years away -- but the Hyades are more like 130 light-years away -- much farther away in deep space. If you could transport yourself to a star in the Hyades Sunday morning, and look back in this direction, you'd still see Aldebaran. But you couldn't see our sun -- much less any of its planets -- because the sun is intrinsically a much fainter star -- invisible to the naked eye from a distance of 130 light-years. From the vicinity of Venus Sunday morning, you'd look this way to see our Earth and its moon in space as a double dot of light. From there, from the planet Venus, if you were looking this way, Aldebaran and the Hyades would be behind you. Hmmm. Well, anyway, here's the view from Earth again. Sunday morning -- Venus, the star Aldebaran and the crescent moon -- along the same line of sight in Earth's eastern sky before dawn. Script by Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1984, 1985 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin