This weekend the planets Mars, Jupiter and Venus form a small triangle in the early morning sky. The planets remain close for the coming week. Jupiter and Venus are closest together in the mornings on Sunday and Monday, when the two planets are about one degree apart. Mars is nearby. The time to look is an hour before sunrise.

We’ve watched these three planets for several weeks and enjoyed their movement together against a backdrop of stationary stars and the increasing light of dawn. Mercury was visible for a couple of days low close to the southeastern horizon. We had no trouble looking as late in the morning as an hour before sunrise to see all four. Five o’clock in the morning is a perfect time.

Venus is the brightest of the three. Jupiter is the second brightest planet. In contrast Mars is the faintest of the three and has a clearly reddish color. Mercury will probably be too difficult to see, as it has already dropped closer to the glare of the rising sun.
Pumpkin Moon

The full moon closest to Halloween approaches and appropriately, we call it the Pumpkin Moon. The moon rises at sunset on Tuesday evening and remains a beacon in our sky through the night. The moon is in the zodiacal constellation Pisces. Halloween is only a week away. The moon is gibbous for Halloween and will have plenty of brilliance to help guide the creatures of the night.