                  APOD: 2018 January 6 - Planets on the Wing

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                2018 January 6
                                      [2]
                             Planets on the Wing
                  Image Credit & Copyright [3] : Dong Han [4]

Explanation: Lately [5] , bright Jupiter and fainter Mars have been easy to
spot for early morning skygazers. Before dawn on January 7 [6] the two
naked-eye planets will reach a close conjunction near the horizon, only 1/4
degree apart in predawn eastern skies. That apparent separation corresponds to
about half the angular diameter [7] of a Full Moon. Just off the wing of a
high-flying aircraft in this snapshot from early morning January 5, Jupiter
(left) and Mars (middle) are also lined-up with the well-balanced
Zubenelgenubi [8]  (right), alpha star of the constellation Libra. Below are
lights from central Europe near Prague, Czech Republic, planet Earth.

                   Tomorrow's picture: tethers in space [9]

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [21] (MTU [22] ) & Jerry Bonnell [23]
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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1801/DSC07952JupMars_DHan.jpg
  [3] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [4] mailto: han [dot] physix [at] gmail.com
  [5] http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/
this-weeks-sky-at-a-glance-january-5-13/
  [6] http://earthsky.org/?p=269361
  [7] http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/scale.html
  [8] ap040514.html
  [9] ap180107.html
  [10] ap180105.html
  [11] archivepix.html
  [12] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [13] lib/aptree.html
  [14] http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  [15] calendar/allyears.html
  [16] /apod.rss
  [17] lib/edlinks.html
  [18] lib/about_apod.html
  [19] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=180106
  [20] ap180107.html
  [21] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [22] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [23] http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  [24] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [25] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [26] http://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  [27] http://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [28] http://www.nasa.gov/
  [29] http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [30] http://www.mtu.edu/
