May 12 2011

The May Morning Planet Show

Not renown as an early riser, I’ll be up at 5am tomorrow (ie soon) to have a look at the Morning Planet Show – Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury will be very close together in the Eastern Sky just before sunrise.

Sydney Observatory says that this alignment occurs only every 50-100 years. They are hosting a breakfast to celebrate.

This video from Nasa shows what you can expect to see tomorrow, as well as on the following few days.

This graphic from the Sydney Observatory explains why they appear to be lined up, when viewed from Earth,

Might be a good chance to test out the amazing Star Walk app for iPad – which provides a real time ‘heads up display’ of the visible celestial objects in whatever direction you point it.

Thanks to Sue for the tip about this.