The morning star in the East …Mars and Venus in a close long parley

January mornings are my favorite – the crisp morning air, late sunrise and most of all, the morning star shining in full glory!

I love stepping out of my balcony when I wake up, huddled inside a cozy sweater and just breathe in the power and beauty of Venus, brightly lighting up our eastern horizon before sunrise. That one image is enough to carry me through the day, but with a sliver of a moon next to Venus, the beauty is just absolute!

My iPhone photograph doesn’t do justice to what you see in reality, so if you are up early before sunrise, remember to take a look East – Venus will continue to shine bright for a few more weeks. If you have a telescope (or with the naked eye on a good day away from city lights), you could even catch the stars of the Sagittarius constellation (looks like an archer with a bow) hosting Venus through most of January and February.

And perhaps the reddish Mars too, which unfortunately I couldn’t capture here…but the two planets will be together in the same sector of the sky for the next two months. It is a rare astronomic event to have Mars and Venus together and so close to each for so long!

If you believe men are from Mars and women are from Venus, then you would not want to miss this opportunity to observe the Martians and Venusians in a close long parley!