Six a.m. is early by most people's standards but late for astronomers, with the fainter objects in the sky obscured by growing light. We're not getting even that much Venus this month, so you should look promptly near 7 p.m. to see the evening star ten degrees above the southwest horizon. Venus is a few degrees north of the bright reddish star Antares. New moon may seem like a non-event, since it describes the phase when the moon is not visible from Earth. Mercury scoots around the sun so quickly and is so difficult to see that we might overlook its conjunction events.
Mercury slips between the Earth and sun today.
By Christmas, it will be in superior conjunction, on the far side of the sun and just as invisible. By 7 p.m., most of your local ghosts and goblins should be wrapping up their neighborhood rounds, and the sun should be about ten degrees below the horizon. Venus should still be visible, low in the southwest, with the young moon even higher up in the zodiac constellation Sagittarius. This site is maintained by University Relations, the public relations office for the University of Kansas Lawrence campus. Copyright 2000, the University of Kansas Office of University Relations.