Four Planets At Dawn

Four planets have gathered in the morning sky at dawn. We will assemble a few big telescopes at the Manesar Astro Facility to view the planets at dawn this Sunday.

Saturn – Look low in the east before sunrise and you will spot Saturn – fresh off its ring plane crossing on March 23rd. The rings will appear unusually thin, nearly edge-on. Its a rare sight you won’t want to miss.

Venus -The brightest planet would be visible easily. It is observable as a large thin crescent. Although it is a thin crescent, just 19% of its surface would be sunlit, but it will be shining bright at -4.5 magnitude. Since Venus lies between the Sun and the Earth,  it is large and shines at its maximum brightness during this phase.

Mercury – The innermost planet,  and a fast mover is also present. We will be able to see Mercury even though the Sun would be rising soon.

Neptune – makes the fourth planet in the bunch, but unfortunately it would be the most difficult to locate and observe. We would try to locate Neptune.

Moon – On your arrival at the Astro Facility we would be observing the Moon. The Moon is in its Last Quarter phase and we would see the Montes Appenninus mountain range, Eratosthenes and Tycho crater on the terminator. The Sun would be setting over these features casting prominent shadow. We would be clicking photos of these lunar features in participants’ cell phones as a wonderful takeaway from this open house.

We are organising an observation on the morning of Sunday 20th April, which happens to be ‘Easter Sunday’. Several large telescopes will be lined up for your observing pleasure.

All are welcome to this early morning observing session. We will be happy if you spread the word of this event in your circles.

The observation starts at 3 am and will continue till sunrise.