Saturday, July 28, 2012

Creating an unusual, but temporary "Triple Star"

When the sky is clear in the early evening, say at 9:30 p.m., look to the west-southwest for the slowly developing "triple star," composed of the planets Saturn and Mars and the true star Spica. In this photo, Saturn and Spica are the similarly bright objects on the left side with Saturn being above Spica. Mars is to their right and is shining at the same luminosity as both Saturn and Spica. A dimmer star, Porrima, lies to Mars' right.

As the nights progress, Mars moves away from Porrima and towards the space between Saturn and Spica, creating a tighter "triple star."

Such is our view from Earth...

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