A Line of Planets in the Dawn

Tomorrow morning, December 10th, you will find a nice lineup of planets in the dawn sky. Mercury, Venus and Saturn will be in a line about 20° long. Adding to the lineup will be a nice crescent Moon, a bit over 10° higher in the sky than Saturn.

The view at 06:00HST will find a 19% illuminated Moon at 38° elevation. Working down the line you will see Saturn at 29° elevation, Venus at 15° elevation and Mercury at 9° elevation. With sunrise not until 06:46HST this will give plenty of time to view, and perhaps photograph, a line of planets in the dawn.

Over the next few days the view will be much the same, with the Moon lower each morning. On December 11th the Moon will sit between Venus and Mercury creating a nice trio.

Full Moon

Full Moon
Full Moon taken 27Aug2007, 90mm f/12 APO and Canon 20Da
Full Moon will occur today at 04:46HST.

A penumbral lunar eclipse will be visible from western North America, across the Pacific to much of Asia. This is a fairly minor eclipse, with the Moon passing through the outer penumbral shadow of the Earth. A careful observer will note the light of the full Moon dimmed. As the Moon will not enter the darker umbral shadow the effects of this eclipse will not be obvious.

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New Moon

Young Moon
A very young moon over Waikoloa, this is only 26 hours after new, visible to the unaided eye as a sliver in the fading glow of sunset
New Moon will occur today at 12:08HST.

During this new moon a total solar eclipse will sweep across Northern Australia and the South Pacific, ending before reaching the west coast of South America. None of this eclipse will be visible from Hawai’i.

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