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The crescent moon is near Venus between 5 and 6:30 tonight. Look for them in the southwest sky.
(Starrynight.com)
If you missed the moon and Venus together last night, you have another chance to see them tonight. The moon remains close to the planet.
Face the southwest sky between 5 and 6:30 p.m. Find the moon first -- it will be a bright crescent almost 5 days old. Venus appears as a bright pinpoint below and to the right of the moon. The two are about 7 degrees apart.
Look for the moon near Mars on Sunday night, between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m., in the constellation Capricornus.
Tomorrow night, the moon can be found near Mars. Face southwest again between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. Both objects are located in the constellation Capricornus and are 7 degrees apart. Look for the red planet to the left of the moon.
Juno approaching Jupiter
The Juno spacecraft is heading back toward Jupiter in its 53-day orbit. In October, it was supposed to fire its main engines to lower its orbit, but NASA scientists discovered a problem with valves on the spacecraft's engines. Therefore, this maneuver was postponed and, shortly thereafter, a software fault caused the spacecraft to shut down into safe mode.
The Juno spacecraft ran into some trouble in October, but is now ready for another flyby of Jupiter.
Although Juno was rebooted and recovered, it missed its opportunity for more measurements and images of Jupiter. Now, it is coming close again and NASA is gearing up to collect as much science data as possible during the encounter.
Next week, we'll take a closer look at the mission as it makes its close approach to the planet on Dec. 11.
Kevin D. Conod is the planetarium manager and astronomer at the Newark Museum's Dreyfuss Planetarium. For updates on the night sky, call the Newark Skyline at (973) 596-6529.