Pi of the sky miscellaneous

4 bright planets on the morning sky during April and May 2011

During April and May 2011 there are 4 planets visible just before sunrise. Starting from the brightest there we have Venus, Jupiter, Mercury and Mars.

At the beginning of May (precisely May 7^th) Mercury was in its greatest western elongation (27°) and will be visible to the end of the month. Venus is getting closer and closer to the Sun and its observing conditions are getting worse. Mars and Jupiter each day are further to the Sun and are visible better and better.

All planets are easily visible from southern hemisphere (apart from Antarctic), but from northern hemisphere they can be observed only from locations with latitudes less than about 30° from equator. In June Mercury and Venus become invisible, but Mars and Jupiter become observable from higher north latitudes.

At the bottom there are a few pictures taken by „Pi of the Sky” detector at San Pedro de Atacama Observatory in northern Chile. Click on "next" or "animate" to see all the pictures. There are full frames 20x20 degrees, with 1 or 2 seconds exposure each. The pictures are taken more or less 70 minutes before sunrise. Over San Pedro de Atacama the Sun is rising about 11:00 UT (7:00 local time) and during taking pictures is about 16° below horizon. Unfortunately in this azimuth there is an antenna, which sometimes masks the planets.