[Friends_of_SSASTROS] Seven Planet Lineup...

[Mike McCabe]

...oh, please!
I'm sure you've all been hearing it too...the mainstream media enthusiastically bleating on an on about the "seven planet lineup in the skies these nights - get out there and see them!"
Ok, so technically there are seven planets in the sky at this juncture, and technically you could see them, but give me a break. These people are off their rockers but they don't know it.
To be fair the reason they're all hot on this lineup business again is because Mercury has entered the fray. A month ago anyone could go out in the early evening and easily see Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus lined up from east to west. And if they had a friend with a telescope they might've got to see Uranus and Neptune. But at that point Mercury was behind the Sun and nowhere to be found. 
So now? Mercury may have entered the scene but Saturn and Neptune have entered the solar glare zone, and both are dim enough that the likelihood of seeing them is in the single digits percentage-wise. Mars, Jupiter and Venus are still excellent - easy naked-eye and good to great in a telescope, and Uranus is still a viable target with optical aid, but the outermost gas/ice giant and the king of the rings have for all intents and purposes left the scene.
So does this mean we shouldn't even bother getting out there? Absolutely not!!! Mercury is a worthy target all by itself, if only because the vast majority of Earth's population has never knowingly seen the little bugger. You don't want to be in the vast majority, do you? Oh, no, it's much better to be special, and special you will be if you can knowingly steal a glimpse of the Fleet Footed Messenger to the Gods.

This is the scene tonight at thirty minutes past sunset. Venus will be blazing high in the west/southwest, while much lower will be a trio of solar system members that are seemingly in a race to get to the horizon. Neptune, at magnitude 7.8 will be a challenge for even the most seasoned sky enthusiasts, and Saturn at magnitude 1.15 will be the next best thing to impossible to pry out of that solar glare. But Mercury, at magnitude -1.05 will be much easier - if there's no low hanging haze in that sunset sky. Binoculars will be your friend for this observation.
Tomorrow night doesn't look very good from a weather standpoint, but Friday does and that day also presents us with a very special challenge.

Friday evening will present us with an opportunity to nab a very special observation if the skies cooperate and you know what you're looking for. The new moon occurs on Thursday evening at 7:44pm EST (which is 00:44 U.T. - so if your info says that the new moon is on the 28th of February, that's why). The very young crescent moon will be hanging 4° below Mercury in the evening twilight sky. At under 22 hours old, this would be a record sighting for most of us. Very young crescents are notoriously difficult to observe, and there's actually a niche group of observers out there that chase this sort of thing.
22 hours is nowhere near the record (for some reason 16 hours comes to mind), but to be fair we don't possess the types of skies that typically enable these observations. Sea level is a nasty place to try and find haze-less skies at sunrise and sunset, and it's a haze-less sky that we'll need to see this hyper-thin crescent coming up on Friday.
The logistics will be easy. Occupy your low western horizon site before 6pm on Friday afternoon, find Mercury in your binoculars as soon as you can, then put Mercury at the very top of the circle seen in your eyepieces and the ultra-skinny lunar crescent should be near the bottom of that field of view.
Good Luck!
Sincerely,
Mike M.

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