Photo of the early evening skies of Limpopo on 18 June 2012, by Kos Coronaios of the Soutpansberg Astronomy Club

For the next two weeks Mercury can be easily seen in our skies. Very early this evening, there’ll be a line up in the west of the 3 bright stars: Canopus (on the left), Sirius and Procyon; then the new crescent moon and to the right of that Mercury – very easy to see!  Over the next two weeks Mercury will rise higher each evening, and then drop towards the sun again. 

Diagram courtesy of www.planetarium.co.za

Mars and Saturn  will also be visible in the evening skies with Mars the bright “star” below the moon on Tue 26th, and Saturn the brighter of the pair near the moon Thu 28th.    Anybody up at the crack of dawn?  Jupiter and Venus are the two bright “morning stars” in the east before sunrise – Jupiter is the left one of the pair.

You can see all this for yourself with guided viewing at a sky-watching evening with the West Rand Astronomy Club this Saturday (23rd June) at the Rhenosterspruit Conservancy. Booking essential – see www.wrac.org.za

Thanks to the Joburg Planetarium www.planetarium.co.za for all this info.