bright-planets-moon-put-on-new-years-show

Bright planets, Moon, put on New Year's show

By Geoff Gaherty
Published December 31, 2015
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At dawn on Thursday, Dec. 31, the four brightest planets outline the
ecliptic, the path followed by the sun and moon. The moon visits each
in turn over the next week.

At dawn on Thursday, Dec. 31, the four brightest planets outline the
ecliptic, the path followed by the sun and moon. The moon visits each
in turn over the next week. (Starry)

Early risers this week will be treated to a spectacular display by the
moon and the four brightest planets in the sky, in a fitting celestial
welcome to the new year.

Weather permitting, the planets Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Saturn will be
visible stretching across the dawn sky right along the ecliptic (the
invisible line that the sun follows across the sky).

[178]The ecliptic is something of an illusion, since the sun does not
really move along it. Instead, the Earth moves in its orbit around the
sun, and observers note that the stars appear to move behind the sun.
The moon also closely follows the path of the ecliptic, but ranges
above and below it because the moon’s orbit is tilted 5 degrees to the
plane of the ecliptic. [[179]101 Best Night Sky Photos of 2015]

On New Year's Eve (Thursday, Dec. 31), the moon is slightly south of
the ecliptic while Jupiter is slightly north of the ecliptic, so the
moon passes 1.5 degrees below Jupiter. Three days later, on the morning
of Sunday, Jan. 3, the moon is slightly above the ecliptic and passes
1.5 degrees north of Mars, which is also north of the ecliptic.

Three days after that, on the morning of Wednesday, Jan. 6, the
shrinking crescent moon is approaching Venus and Saturn. A day later,
and it has passed them, but still forms a very close grouping with the
two planets.

On the morning of Jan. 9, Venus and Saturn will be particularly close,
and will fit within the field of a small telescope.

Because [180]the solstice has only just passed, in the Northern
Hemisphere dawn still comes quite late in the morning, so many people
will be up and about while the sky is still dark enough to observe
these interesting conjunctions between the moon and these four planets.
This will be a good way to ring in the new year, which will be filled
with many interesting events for skywatchers.

Good planet hunting and Happy New Year!

This article was provided by [181]Simulation Curriculum, the leader in
space science curriculum solutions and the makers of [182]Starry Night
and [183]SkySafari. Follow Starry Night on Twitter
[184]@StarryNightEdu. Follow us [185]@Spacedotcom, [186]Facebook and
[187]Google+. Original article on [188]Space.com.
* [189]Best Telescopes for the Money
* [190]The Most Extreme Stargazing Objects in the Night Sky
* [191]How to Choose Binoculars for Astronomy and Skywatching

Source .... : http://www.foxnews.com/science/2015/12/31/bright-planets-moon-put-on-new-years-show.html
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