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May 19-22: Three Heliocentric Conjunctions of Planets
Some of you know without being told, that the recent clustering of planets in the morning sky is an optical illusion based on the relative positions of the earth and those planets in their orbits. If we were to look at the planets in a sun centered image, they present a completely different picture.
Due to the position of the earth this month, Mercury and Venus appear to conjoin from May 7th through the 22nd. On May 11th they both conjoined Jupiter and on May 21-2 they will both conjoin Mars, before Mercury out strips Venus and heads for the back side of the sun.
Mercury makes its superior conjunction with the sun (Mercury behind the sun as seen from the earth) on June 12th, while Venus reaches its superior conjunction on August 16th. Curiously, as Mercury has an 88 day orbit of the sun, it passes in front of the sun (as seen from the earth), it's inferior conjunction the same day, August 16th.
Between May 19 and 22nd, each of the three planets that conjoin as seen from the earth on the 22nd conjoins another planets as viewed from the sun. May 19, Mars conjoins Jupiter. May 20, Venus conjoins Urnaus. may 22nd, Mercury conjoins Neptune.
Here is a Utube video of that:
May 19-22: Three Heliocentric Conjunctions
I keep getting up early to see it, and the sky will not cooperate at all, damn these dank cloudy sky’s.
“I keep getting up early to see it”
You can try again in Oct & November when Mercury and Venus conjoin in the evening sky. They get together about Oct 24th, are joined by the moon Oct 27 & 8, and remain together until about Nov 20th. All that time they are getting farther from the sun.
The moon joins them again on around Nov 26th, at which time Mercury will drop away from Mercury as it heads back in front of the sun.