JRS: In article , dated Sat, 10 Dec 2005
17:03:02 local, seen in news:uk.sci.astronomy, Stephen Tonkin news05foo
posted :
ASK A POLICEMAN wrote:
Looking south slightly southwest early evening a bright star appears - i'm
in south London - it's so bright I'm thinking it might be a planet? Is it
Mars or Venus?

Venus. Mars can also be seen at the same time, 30* (-ish) high in the E.

That could be a little misleading, since in the very early evening (and
Venus seems to set between 6 & 7 pm currently, and can often be seen
before 4 pm, even in outer London) Mars may be up but not readily
visible against the still-illuminated sky at a time when Venus is
conspicuous.

Apart from heavens-above, there's also the maps that appear each month
in the Telegraph & Times. The latter is much better, but both mark the
planets visible later in the evening, describe the adjustment for
adjacent months, and mention anything conspicuous.

At the moment, Mars is a couple of degrees or so to the left of the
Moon; tomorrow night, it will be around ten degrees to the right of the
Moon.

--
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