Goodbye Jupiter, hello Venus

As the king of the planets disappears, Earth's sister world rises to the occasion.

by Jonathan Nally

There'll be a few comings and goings this month, as some of the planets reappear from or disappear into the solar glare. We'll also have some nice pairings. One of those pairings will be between Mercury (–1.2, 5.6ˮ, Mar. 30) and Saturn on the morning of March 3. The two planets will be separated by only 1°, but will be low on the eastern horizon before sunrise — you might need binoculars to spot them. (Make sure you stop looking before the Sun comes up!) Mercury will soon be gone into the solar glare, as it reaches superior conjunction on March 17. By the end of the month, it will reappear above the western horizon in the evening twilight, but low and very hard to see. The two best viewing opportunities…

You're reading a preview of

Australian Sky & Telescope (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 2023

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.