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From: dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd)
Newsgroups: net.astro
Subject: StarDate: October 3 Mars and Venus
Message-ID: <10@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 3-Oct-85 02:00:20 EDT
Article-I.D.: utastro.10
Posted: Thu Oct  3 02:00:20 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 6-Oct-85 05:04:26 EDT
Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX
Lines: 35

The two "stars" near each other in the predawn sky are really planets.
More -- after this.

October 3  Mars and Venus

Friday and Saturday mornings are good times to see two planets
extremely near each other on the dome of the sky.  The planet Venus is
the brightest object you'll see in the east before dawn.  Very near
Venus is a much dimmer reddish object -- the planet Mars.

Though the two planets appear close together in the sky, in reality
they're millions of miles apart.  Venus is the second planet outward
from the sun -- and Mars is the fourth.  We're seeing these two worlds
from another world whose orbit is sandwiched in between -- our Earth.

From our line of sight, both Mars and Venus are located far across the
solar system.  They're both moving toward the far side of the sun from
Earth.  But the farther a planet is from the sun, the slower it moves
in orbit.  So while Venus is racing ahead of the Earth, we're now
catching up to Mars.  We'll pass between it and the sun next summer.

Next Sunday Venus will be at the point in its orbit where it's nearest
the sun -- called its perihelion.  On October 17, Mars will be at
aphelion, the farthest point from the sun in its orbit.

So tomorrow and Saturday morning, Venus and Mars will be far from each
other in the solar system -- and far from Earth.  But they'll appear
from Earth to be less than a moon's diameter apart on the dome of our
sky.  Look eastward an hour before dawn -- for brilliant Venus and much
fainter red Mars.


Script by Diana Hadley.

(c) Copyright 1984, 1985 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin


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