Thursday, February 28, 2008

The Two Inner Planets

Mornings during the seven days or so offer the skywatcher a chance to glimpse our solar system's two inner planets, Mercury and Venus. Their angular separation from the sun isn't great so they rise shortly before sunrise. Try looking very low in the east at 6:20 a.m. for bright Venus with dimmer Mercury above it. On March 5, the thin crescent moon joins them, but all three may be lost in the brightening twilight.

Such is our view from Earth...

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