05 January 2009

Conjunction of planets on 7 January


Conjunction of Planets

PAGASA (Philippine Astronomic, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration) has this item in its Astronomical Diary for January 2009:

On January 7 at around 6:00 PM, a grand conjunction of planets will be observed in the west southwestern horizon. Venus, Jupiter and Mercury are the brightest naked eye planets in our sky shining at magnitudes -4.2, -0.4 and -1.9, respectively, while Neptune and Uranus will be found at 30 and 58 degrees above the horizon shining at magnitudes +7.9 and +5.7, respectively. Neptune will be located among the background stars of the constellation Capricornus, the Sea-Goat, while Uranus will be located among the background stars of the constellation Aquarius, the Water Bearer as shown in Figure 1.. Mars will be difficult to observe due to its proximity to the Sun.
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Tropical Depression ‘Auring’ is now heading away in a north-easterly direction so I’m hoping that the sky will be clear on Wednesday at nightfall.

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