Moon/Venus/Jupiter

Monday evening, December 1, the sky will present everyone with a spectacular conjunction (
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20081128/sc_space/spectacularskyscenemondayevening) of the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter. No telescope needed but binoculars will make it even more impressive. The three objects will appear extremely close together shortly after sunset but in reality they are very far apart in space. The moon will only be just over 251,000 miles away while Venus will be a little over 93 MILLION miles away, and Jupiter, almost on the other side of the sun from us, will be 540.3 million miles away. The best to observe this about 1/4 to 1/2 an hour after sunset. They will remain visible until they set, Venus and Jupiter around 7:40pm local time and the Moon around 8:00. The later you look, of course, the lower in the sky they will be. The most beautiful time is shortly after sunset when the sky still retains a little blue color from the light of the Sun below the horizon.

Happy viewing!