Jupiter and Pleiades near each other

Event Date: June 9th
Time: 5:00 AM

Brief

  Jupiter rises a little over an hour before the Sun this week, and is bright enough to be visible for a short while before the Sun washes the sky out.  If not with eyes alone, try with binoculars.  Normally when the planet is further from the Sun in separation, it has a red-orange look to it when low to the horizon.  Since it is rising a more north of east than last year and much more so than two years ago, we see it make the "curving-rise" motion as seen from our latitude.  See image one for the celestial graph reminding this.

Detailed

   Back when Jupiter was seen rising during the second half of 2010 in Pisces, a part of the sky where the Sun is near the time of the vernal equinox, Jupiter was rising at more of a right angle with the horizon.  As the first image above shows, Jupiter at declination 19º makes that upwards curve when rising, and downwards when setting.  We are not seeing it set yet since it does so in the early evening before the Sun.
   Look near Jupiter by about 5º to its left, which is a little more north: the Pleiades star cluster, which dominated the fall and winter skies among deep sky targets, makes a morning return.  It may be just dark enough to see it before Sunrise.  Try looking again in about a week when it rises about 27 minutes earlier than it does this evening before the Sun.  Being more northeast than Jupiter at this time it rises about that same number of minutes before Jupiter.  The second image shows both in a binocular field of 7º.

click on image to enlarge: courtesy of Starry Night Pro Plus, version 6.4.3, by Simulation Curriculum Corp.