Week of Oct. 25-31, 2015

When the earliest stargazers gazed skyward, they carefully mapped the positions of the stars, and they recognized them as fixed and immovable objects. Some of the heavenly lights, however, were not so fixed.

Occasionally a meteor would burst into view, only to be gone moments later. There were the comets — those mysterious and ethereal visitors that seemed to drift through the starry sky for weeks or months, and then vanish forever.

And then there were the five planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. All appeared to wander across the sky from night to night, from month to month. Their classification as "planets" comes from the ancient Greek word meaning "wanderer." The earliest sky watchers believed that these lights were special — that they were messengers of the gods or, perhaps, even the gods themselves.

The movement of the planets is quite easy to watch, but many casual stargazers have never really seen it. This week, however, will be a great time to do that — if you're willing to get up before sunrise.

At that time you'll spot four planets low in the eastern sky: Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Mercury. If you keep watch over the next few mornings, you'll see their remarkable motions as they appear to change their positions relative to each other.

The best time to check them out will be during dawn on Monday, Oct. 26. On that morning, brilliant Venus will form a tight triangle with Jupiter and Mars. In fact, they will appear so close that, if you aim binoculars in their direction, you can see them all in the same field of view. Below, and much closer to the horizon, you may also spot the elusive planet Mercury.

Within only days the configuration will change dramatically. Sky watchers will notice that Mercury and Venus — the most rapidly moving of all planets — will descend from day to day. By the morning of Tuesday, Nov. 3, Venus will appear next to Mars, and this pair will appear less than one degree apart — close enough that you can see both planets in the same field of view of a low power telescope. Also on that morning, Mercury will have dropped far enough that it likely will be invisible in the growing light of dawn.

By the morning of Friday, Nov. 6, the thin crescent moon will join the party and will lie next to Jupiter. On the next morning, it also will have moved and will then shine below brilliant Venus.

The relative proximity of these worlds is, of course, an optical illusion. They are really many millions of miles apart but appear close simply because they lie along nearly the same line of sight.

For example, on the morning of Oct. 26, Venus will be the closest planet to Earth at a distance of a mere 64.6 million miles. The planet Mars will lie more than three times farther at a distance of about 208.2 million miles and Jupiter more than two and a half times farther than Mars — at about 560.6 million miles. Nearer to the horizon, Mercury will appear at a distance of about 111.0 million miles from us.

Visit Dennis Mammana at www.dennismammana.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.