09 May 2011

Naked-eye planets

There's been a bit of stuff even in mainstream media about four planets being visible in the morning sky at the moment. I didn't think I had a chance of seeing them, because Melbourne has well and truly turned on winter. However, we were up at 6am this morning for a different reason, and there was one big break in the clouds:
Venus, very bright white;
Mercury, faint but not as faint as I expected up to the right of Venus;
Jupiter, looking faintly yellow and about as bright as Venus;
and Mars, definitely red, just above the tops of the houses.

This has made my week! I can't believe I've now seen Mercury with my own eyes; and it was a seriously beautiful sight as a whole.