Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter shine from the morning sky. The morning planet parade breaks apart.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
About two hours before sunrise, brilliant Venus gleams from the eastern sky. It is near the Southern Horn of Taurus the Bull, known as Zeta Tauri (ζ Tau on the photo).
For over a month, Venus has been moving eastward in Taurus. Tomorrow, Venus moves into the club region of Orion. Bellatrix, a shoulder of Orion, is visible in the photo above.
About an hour earlier, with a bright moon in the sky and only four hours past its official Full phase, Mars shines from the dim starfield of Pisces. It continues to march eastward along the solar system’s plane. Use a binocular to track Mars through the starfield, especially with the bright moon in the sky for the next several mornings.
Next month, the Red Planet starts to retrograde. Mars appears to move westward compared to the stars. On October 13, 2020, Earth passes between the planet and the sun. Mars and the sun are in opposite directions from Earth. This is known as opposition. The planet rises in the east at sunset and sets in the west at sunrise. Around opposition, Mars is closest to Earth and appears at its brightest. This occurs a week before opposition.
This morning Mars is 0.3° to the upper left of 89 Piscium (89 Psc on the photo) and 3.7° to the lower right of Zeta Piscium (ζ Psc).
Jupiter and Saturn are appearing very low in the sky at this hour. Better views occur when the planets are in the evening sky. Ninety minutes after sunset, they are shining from low in the southeastern sky,
Both planets are retrograding in eastern Sagittarius. They reverse their courses next month. As the year closes, Jupiter passes Saturn on December 21, 2020, in a Great Conjunction.
Here is a daily summary about the planets during August.