Planetary Conjunction: May 2011. Image Source: New Maine Times.
This week and next will be great for amateur astronomers - four planets are converging within 10 degrees of each other in the eastern dawn skies. You can observe Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter with the naked eye clustered together above the horizon before sunrise. See the NASA video explaining the conjunctions below the jump. The best mornings are May 8-14. On the 11th and 12th, Jupiter and Venus will be less than one degree apart; they will resemble a supernova. Make the effort to get up and look for them: the next time these four planets will converge in this manner will be September 2040. This is for observers in the northern as well as Equatorial and southern latitudes. But the southern latitudes will have a better view. You can still see the Eta Aquariids meteors low in the eastern or south-eastern skies around 03:00 BST until about May 20. These are meteors formed from the tail of Halley's Comet.
Video Source: NASA via Youtube.
Video Source: Miami Science Museum via Youtube.
For more reports on this convergence see here, here and here.
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