Friday morning, Jan. 5, look toward the southeast around 5 a.m. to see bright Jupiter, 21 degrees above the horizon. Just above Jupiter is red Mars, less than a degree away from Jupiter. This pair will be gorgeous in binoculars or a small telescope.
Just above Mars and Jupiter are the two brightest stars in Libra the Scales, Zubenelgenubi to the left (north) and Zubeneschamali to the right (south). These stars are easily recognizable old friends in this part of the sky. I like them because of their unique names, though I always have to be extra careful to spell them correctly.
On Saturday morning, Jupiter and Mars will be even closer, just 19 arcminutes apart. In the astronomical world, a degree in the sky represents 60 arcminutes, and one arcminute is composed of 60 arcseconds. To put these terms in perspective, the moon has an apparent diameter of about one-half degree or 30 arcminutes, which also happens to be the apparent diameter of the sun.
On Sunday morning, Jupiter and Mars will even be slightly closer, about 18 arcminutes apart. By then, it will also be apparent Jupiter and Mars are changing position. Mars now lies closer to the horizon with Jupiter above it. By Monday morning they will be farther apart, separated by more than one-half degree, still very close. This grouping (conjunction) of Jupiter and Mars is astronomically unimportant but beautiful and uncommon.
