Binoculars

Two bright planets are up before dawn right now, and the gap between them shrinks every morning for the next month. This morning Mars and Jupiter are 12.7° apart, a bit more than a fist held at arm’s length. By the morning of November 16 that gap is down to 1.19°, a little over two full-Moon widths. Closest approach is around 02:00 UT on the 16th, which is 04:00 in Cyprus, with both planets riding high in the south-east. You don’t need any equipment for this one. Pick a morning each week, note how far apart the two points are, and watch Mars catch up. Binoculars add Jupiter’s moons. Around the 16th, a small telescope at its lowest power can just about hold both planets in a single field. ...

There’s a comet in the pre-dawn sky right now that most people will never hear about, because it isn’t the kind that makes the news. Comet 220P/McNaught is a small periodic visitor that has done something unusual twice this summer: it blew up. Two separate outbursts, in late May and again on August 5, dragged a 17th-magnitude speck up into binocular range. In mid-August it was sitting around 6th to 7th magnitude, low in the constellation Cetus before sunrise: a binocular object under a dark sky, and already fading. If you want it, this is the week to try. ...

On the evening of June 9, Venus and Jupiter close to within roughly 1.5° of each other, about three full-moon widths, low in the western twilight. Venus, near magnitude −4, is the brighter of the two. Jupiter sits at about magnitude −2, dimmer but impossible to miss. Both planets fit comfortably inside a standard binocular field of view, and you don’t need anything more than your eyes to enjoy the pairing. The show runs for the better part of a week on either side of the closest approach, so one cloudy night won’t ruin it. ...