sagar: Author=’Bruce McClure’ program=” video=”Our chart shows the evening sky as it appears from Santiago, Chile. Santiago’s latitude of 33.5 degrees south of the equator is comparable to the latitude of Cape Town, South Africa or Canberra, Australia.

This grouping of the planets – Venus, Mercury and Mars – is much better seen from the southern hemisphere. These planets and the razor-thin “waxing crescent moon”:http://earthsky.org/article/waxing-crescent are still above Santiago’s horizon at one hour after “sunset”:http://earthsky.org/article/sunrisesunset-moonrisemoonset-almanacs. At one hour after sunset at mid-northern latitudes, the crescent moon, Venus and Mercury will have already “set”:http://earthsky.org/article/sunrisesunset-moonrisemoonset-almanacs!

At our mid-northern latitudes, we probably won’t see these planets (with the possible exception of Venus) because they’re obscured by the twilight dusk. Mercury and Mars are even hard to see with binoculars. The evening crescent moon is virtually impossible to catch – with or without an optical aid.

Why does the southern hemisphere have the big advantage for seeing these evening planets and the “young moon”:http://earthsky.org/faq/young-moon-visibility? It’s because the _ecliptic_ – the path of the sun, moon and planets – arcs high across their late-winter evening sky. In the northern hemisphere, the _ecliptic_ follows a low path across our late-summer evening sky, so here these planets and the young crescent set much sooner after sunset!