Early risers on Tuesday and Wednesday, Aug. 27 and 28, will get to view a celestial event and the only equipment needed are your eyes.
Head outside about 5 a.m. on Tuesday and look up.
Eric Loberg, Director of the Taylor Planetarium at the Museum of the Rockies, said you certainly can use optics like a telescope or binoculars but the naked eye works just fine for this special occurrence.
“If you can just look up and the brightest object you are going to see in the early morning sky-- before the sun comes up-- is Jupiter,“ said Loberg. “You are going to see it in the east. You can’t miss it; it is really, really bright. That’s what you’re seeing in the east. Nearby is a little red object and that’s Mars. Mars and Jupiter were really close to each other on August 14, right above each other. But on Tuesday morning about 5 o’clock you will see Mars, Jupiter and the Moon making a triangle. “
If it is cloudy you can see the celestial triangle on Wednesday morning as well. The Moon will move just a little farther over and Jupiter will be a little farther away. If you wait too close to sunrise, you will lose Mars because it is the dimmer of those three.
If you have an unobstructed view of the horizon and can see really low in the sky, you might even see Mercury, but it’s tough to see being so low.
With a telescope and if you know exactly where to look, a little further east you will find Uranus and Neptune.
Loberg said we will get another chance to see a celestial event if you miss this one in late August.
“Around Christmas and January you will get all the way in the east will be Mars and then it will go Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Saturn and Venus will be all the way over in the West. So that will be in really late December right around January one, you go out and you will be able to see that one,” remarked Loberg.
Sunrise in Montana is around 6:25A.M. in late August but plan to be outside at 5A.M. in a place with a dark sky without light pollution and a clear view of the eastern horizon.
And look up.
