look into the night sky.

On Monday, December 1,2008. look into the night sky. Do you see anything unusual?

Check out the moon, it will be just a sliver of its crescent shape. Notice the two silvery orbs hovering close by. What you’ll see are the planets Venus and Jupiter, two of the brightest planets. If you start watching tonight, you’ll be able to see this threesome merge closer together. This event is called an occultation of planets by astronomers and will be especially beautiful in Western Europe where the moon will pass in front of Venus. In North America you may be able to see the darkened portion of the moon’s full globe glowing with a bluish gray hue.

Venus is unmatched in its brilliance. This winter the planet is expected to be a magnificent display of illumination prominent in the southwestern sky, which it traveled into in late August of this year. Venus is usually the first “star” you’ll notice shortly before sunset on clear nights.

Jupiter will be located slightly above Venus. It’s moving in the opposite direction so you’ll notice that it drops lower each evening. By the end of December it will be in close proximity to Mercury but will be difficult to see as this meeting takes place low in the sunset instead of high in the night sky. Then in January it will travel close to the Sun.