Mercury & the Crescent Moon

Been awhile... at least an entire school year...
Last night I took a little drive to a clear cut down the road to check out the western horizon after sunset (9ish) and after easily spotting bright Venus, used binoculars to spy both the 30 hours old waxing moon and the speedy, elusive Mercury. Once I found them in the binoculars, I was able to easily see the moon and after a little bit of searching, Mercury, with just my eyes: spectacular! Mercury, only 9 days after coming out from behind the sun, is gibbous but what shape I could make out in the binoculars looked round, but it was nice just to see it again. The incredibly thin moon looked huge in the binocs even though it was soooooooo thin - it wasn't dark enough to see the dark side of our satellite with earthshine. But, the moon and our inner most planet were gorgeous just above the lovely colors of sunset.  Jupiter, looking about 90 degrees left of the Mercury/Moon/Venus scene, is bright and high up in the south.
Seeing 3 planets (and the moon) spread across the sky makes the ecliptic easy to see/imagine. The ecliptic is the plane of our solar system and the path that the sun and planets (and our moon) must take through the sky. Last night you could start at Jupiter and follow the curve around to Venus and then down toward Mercury and even on past the edge of earth to the recently set sun.  The ecliptic is overhead at the equator and on the horizon at the poles, so, about 38 degrees up here at 38 degrees north latitude. It also is where you find the constellations of the zodiac. Want more zodiac info, check out the last blog on Sun & Sky, written by my students last year. Want to know more, go check out the night sky, today on Earth.
Tonight the still tiny crescent moon will be closer to and, below Venus. Making a triangle with the moon and Venus (and above Mercury) are the bright, but much dimmer than either Venus or Mercury, twins stars of Gemini, Castor and Pollux. Should be a coolish, clear, lovely evening, check out your solar system, Tonight on Earth.