When you want to see the stars, find someplace dark
Venus and Saturn
On the morning of January 8th and 9th Venus and Saturn will be quite close in the dawn.
The Moon appears as a thin crescent beside the planet Mercury, photo taken from the summit of Mauna Kea on 12Oct2007Tomorrow morning the two can be seen rapidly closing upon each other, less than 3° apart. A slim crescent Moon will be only 4° above Venus making for a lovely trio in the dawn. The morning of the 7th will also feature a nice trio, with the Moon now below the pair, closer to the horizon.
As the pair rises on the morning of the 8th they will be only 32′ apart, easily close enough to fit in the low power field of most amateur telescopes. The morning of the 9th will see the pair again close, only 34′ separation. They will slide past each other much closer, about 5′ apart, but this will not be visible from the central Pacific as it occurs around 11:42 HST on the 8th, while the planets are below the horizon.
