Monday 18th to Sunday 24th March 2024
How about a bit of a visual challenge if you like early mornings? Look towards the east south east at 6am on Friday 22nd to see Venus just rising above the horizon. It should be quite easy to see with a magnitude of -3.8 so that's not much of a challenge at all!
At the same time, just below and to the right of Venus will be Saturn - much harder to spot in the dawn sky with a magnitude of +0.8
Please remember that the Sun will be rising in the same place so don't be tempted to use a telescope to see Saturn's rings - this is purely a "naked eye" experiment!
If instead you look in the same direction (east south east) around 8pm on Saturday 23rd, a much easier target to find will be a 98%-lit waxing Gibbous Moon. That's almost a Full Moon which occurs two days later.
You could also have a go at trying to identify the constellation of Leo "the Lion" that will be directly above the Moon. Archaeological evidence places Leo as one of the earliest recognised constellations, dating back as far as 4000BC with the Mesopotamians.
Mercury can be another difficult planet to spot because it always appears close to the rising or setting Sun. On Sunday 24th Mercury reaches its furthest elongation from the Sun and it actually sets nearly two hours after the Sun. The planet will be easy to locate, shining at a magnitude of -0.1 if you look towards the western horizon from 7pm.
At the same time, Jupiter will make another nice target above and to the left of Mercury.
www.starsoversomerset.com
Screenshots courtesy of Stellarium
Copyright Adrian Dening and Radio Ninesprings 2024
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