Private: Predawn moon and Venus on March 4 and 5
March 4, 2008 - ES Tonight
Credit: Raymond Shobe
Before dawn Wednesday morning, look toward the place where the sun will rise for the thin “waning crescent moon”:http://earthsky.org/article/waning-crescent very near a dazzling point of light.
As seen from the northern hemisphere, they’re low in the sky before dawn, but so bright you can’t miss them if you have an unobstructed eastern horizon. The moon and Venus are close together on March 4 – but even closer on March 5. You’ll be surprised by how bright Venus appears, even when it’s low in the sky.
And if you see a speck of light hovering above Venus before sunrise, that’ll be the planet Mercury. Mercury and Venus are the first and second planets outward from the sun. Earth is the third planet. But Mercury isn’t as bright as Venus. If you can’t spot it with the eye alone, try gazing toward the eastern horizon with binoculars. Venus and Mercury will occupy the same binocular field of view, with fainter Mercury just above Venus in the eastern predawn sky. These two planets will remain a close-knit pair throughout March. They’re near the sunrise now, though, and will get tougher and tougher to spot.
You can also look for another planet – the largest one in our solar system – Jupiter. It’s recognizable for being the brightest thing up before dawn besides the moon and Venus. In fact, Venus and Jupiter rank as the 3rd and 4th brightest bodies in all the heavens, after the sun and moon. As seen from this hemisphere, you’ll find Jupiter to the right of Venus and the moon before dawn on Wednesday, March 5. From the southern hemisphere, Jupiter is above the moon and Venus Wednesday morning.
Much of the United States, the Caribbean, and Mexico are in a position to watch the moon occult, or cover over, Venus during the daylight hours on Wednesday, March 5. Although sharp-sighted people can view the event with no optical aid, most people probably need binoculars or a telescope to watch this daylight occultation. To find out the occultation times for your area, check out this informative IOTA (International Occultation Timing Association) “web page”:http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/planets08/0305venus.htm.
On that page, the times are given in “Universal Time”:http://earthsky.org/article/universal-time (UT) and must be converted to your time zone. For instance, as seen from Austin, Texas, Venus disappears behind the moon at 20:12 (8:12 p.m.) UT and reappears at 21:25 (9:25 p.m.) UT. To convert to Central Standard Time (Austin’s time zone), you must subtract 6 hours. Therefore, Venus disappears behind the moon at 14:12 (2:12 p.m.) CST and reappears at 15:25 (3:25 p.m.) CST.
The moon and Venus will be about 25 degrees to the west (or right) of the sun at occultation time. The width of your fist at an arm length from your eye spans about 10 degrees of sky. In other words, the moon and Venus will be about 2.5 fist-widths from the sun.
Whatever you do, don’t look at the sun, since this could cause severe eye injury! Partner up with someone, and have that person shade out the sun for you with an umbrella. Estimate the moon and Venus’ distance from the sun without looking directly at the sun.
Mar 4 & Mar 5 Viewing Venus and Mercury