Two Planets Approach Solar Conjunction.

[MeteorWayne]

<p>Both Mars and Mercury will pass behind the sun in the next two weeks. Of course, we can't see that from here, but the SOHO spacecraft has a perfect view. Here's a link to the high quality animation. At the moment, there are a few dead periods so everything jumps a few times near the end of the current loop. Hopefully as we approach conjunction there will be fewer gaps.</p><p>The stars move slowly left to right. Mercury is the bright object (With the horizontal line due to overexposed pixels) moving right to left. Mars is the dim object to the left of the sun moving left to right at a slower rate than the stars.</p><p>The stars move left to right compared to the sun since we are moving around the sun. Mars' motion is a combination of our shifting perspective, and it's own slow right to left motion. Since our perspective is changing faster than it's motion moves it against the stellar background it drifts left to right, but at a slower rate than the stars.</p><p>Check on the link every few days as the two planets get closer. </p><p>http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/LATEST/current_c3.gif</p><p>Mercury reaches conjunction on Nov 25th, while Mars, with it's rovers and orbiters, and the now sleeping Phoenix reaches conjunction on December 5th.</p><p>Here's the latest still. The stars above and below Mars are beta and delta Scopii, the pair to the left are omega Scorpii. These are stars in the curved western edge (the claws) of the constellation Scorpio.</p><p><br /><img src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/Content/images/store/12/10/2c49ae4a-9fbc-43a2-8a5c-04ab6155651f.Medium.gif" alt="" /></p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>