Early risers get a double sky treat: a Mars and Jupiter conjunction and the Perseid meteor shower at once
Setting an alarm for 4:00 A.M. on August 14 is a big ask, but the payoff will be worth it: Mars and Jupiter will shine like a double star in the sky. And if you’re lucky, you’ll also see a few Perseid meteors at the same time.
All the major planets in the solar system orbit the sun in roughly the same plane, which, as seen from Earth, means they follow an imaginary line in the sky called the ecliptic. They all move at different speeds around our star, so sometimes we see one lapping another, with the two appearing close together for a short time..
You won’t need any fancy equipment to see it, either. Just go outside before sunrise while the sky is still dark—from 3 to 4 A.M. is perfect—find a spot with a relatively clear horizon to the east andwill be the brightest “star” in the sky, 30 degrees above the horizon .If you could witness this from high above the solar system, you’d see Earth, Mars and Jupiter in very nearly a perfectly straight line .
Mars and Jupiter will appear close together for some time before and after August 14. On such occasions, I like to go out a night or two early so I can appreciate the approach as the two planets slowly close the gap between them in the sky night after night. There’s a bonus here, too: the annual Perseid meteor shower peaks the morning of August 12 in the U.S. but should still put on a good show two nights later, when the conjunction occurs. These small bits of rocky debris from Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle burn up dozens of kilometers overhead in our atmosphere, zipping across the sky in less than a second. Meteor showers like this are best observed after midnight.
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