Three planets appear in our eastern sky at dawn. The two brightest planets in our sky, Venus and Jupiter, are about to do a handshake. And the red planet Mars, a bit higher in the sky is there to watch.

Jupiter and Venus will be closest on Monday morning. Take the time to look for them an hour or two before sunrise. The two are a fraction of a degree apart. They are so close they’ll appear to be touching, though they are really millions of miles apart.

With a telescope, the show is even more startling. Venus is a far more brilliant little ball, while Jupiter is just bigger but not as bright. This conjunction, a short term event will come and go. By the end of next week, the two will have distinctly separated. Only Mars appears almost stationary.

The thin crescent moon will join all three later in the coming week.

This weekend, the moon rises in the east well after midnight. It is in the zodiacal constellation Leo, not far from the bright star Regulus. It is quite a distance from the three planets. But take another look next Thursday morning and the thin crescent moon is nearby.

The crescent moon appears under Jupiter and Venus on the morning of Friday, Nov. 17.