The `fab five`

www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/watchtheskies/fab_five.html

"Like a busy urban family, planets rarely get together all at once. Later this month, however, the five so-called naked-eye planets -- Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn -- will reunite in the night sky, giving spectators a unique chance to see Earth's closest companions in one easy sitting.

The gathering will be visible every night for an hour after sunset, beginning around March 22 and lasting about two weeks. While other viewing opportunities will take place over the next few years, both at dawn and dusk, this one is not to be missed.

"This particular planetary grouping will quite possibly offer the best nighttime views until 2036," says Dr. Myles Standish, an astronomer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif."

hi Al and everyone,

thanks for drawing attention to the sweep of planets . . . it has been the first opportunity so see them all together since the Spring of 2002 when they were bunched even closer in the evening sky and Comet Utsomiya (sp.?) was in the area too.

use the occasion to note the tints of each planet too -- pale pink or whiskey-hued Mercury, orange Mars, yellowish Saturn, and the brilliant white of Venus contrasting with a more subdued cream colour for Jupiter.

the morning hours in early December will be another time to see the five classical naked-eye planets in one go . . . they will also be, for a while, in order of their increasing distance from the Sun in the Solar System.

the next opportunity to repeat these observations will be 2016.

John Flannery,
SDAS

I viewed the" FAB FIVE" both with naked eye and binos for the first time this evening. Not , perhaps, as spectacular as with a telescope but it is a start. I used Orion as a finder for Saturn, and then had a look at the belt and sword area and could, through the binos, make out what looks like a couple of double stars. To assure my self it was not an illusion I checked them on Winstars and sure enough the binos are working fine. I had viewed M42 and the object above it. Clouds have rolled in now from the west and the glow of dublin airport is about 2 km south of me. So back to reading about astronomy until the next time. (enjoy all the posts in the various sections and I am learning from all of the contributors). Clear skies from a very new convert to this fasinating hobby

I too tried for the Fab 5ive.
Just after the sun went down, the moon slowly crept into brightness. I thought with the weather we were having it was going to be too good to be true to get all 5 planets and the Moon, as I watched the sun at sunset for about 30 minutes.... and it was! Horizonal cloud crept in, so I didn't get to see Mercury, but all the others were picture perfect!
And to abuse that, I took out my Cosina SLR 35mm camera, and went through 2 rolls of ISO200 24exp films! I know, it sounds daft, but I tried various settings like 1/125th of a second through to 2 second exposures of the Moon and Venus, Jupiter, and a 2 minute exposure of Saturn in Gemini 35 minutes after sunset, so the glow should be strong, but nice! I'm only really practising astrophotography, but if they turn out ok, I'll post them in the files section when they get developed.

I took out the SkyLux 70mm F10 refractor out too, and WOW! was Jupiter amazing! 2 Moons side by side on its left close to, and 1 distant Moon each side of the disk. Venus shone almost like a half moon, glowing white. And Saturn with the rings was fantastic. I didn't think that such a cheap refractor (€65, remember?) could still manage such feats.

Its time for tea now!


Seanie. :lol:

Hi All,
I was running simulations on Starry night to see how good Mercury is going to get and it will get pretty high over the next 10 days, hopefully we'll be able to get a pic of it, of course all will be dependent on the weather,
It'll be gone by the 4th-ish of April, best time looks like its around the end of March.
I remember a similar conjunstion (although tighter) of the planets a number of years ago, I think it was may/june 1991, and included Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury (to a lesser extent) and the moon also passed by and the whole thing happened near the behive cluster in cancer. This was before the days when I had a camera, so I drew it out, night by night, I'll go see if I can find that sheet.

I finally got to see Mercury Last night for the first time with the naked eye (and not in a transit!). It was very esay with the moon as a guide just after sunset. Though I'm i Prague at the moment so the location may have made it a bit easier.

Venus was easy obviously, and saturn and Jupiter were also visible when you knew where to look. I forgot to look for mars but the thin crescent moon made up for it.

Cheers,
~Al