Morning Planets: Saturn and Venus to Converge SKY MAP: Venus and
Saturn on Aug. 31, 2004 at 6 a.m. local time from mid-northern
latitudes. Evening sky watchers might be asking themselves,
"Where did all the planets go?" With Jupiter having disappeared
into the bright evening twilight during this past week, the
evening sky is now totally devoid of any bright planets. Morning
is the time to find planets. Venus and Saturn are easily visible
and will be putting on a predawn show during this upcoming week
in the eastern sky, gradually appearing to close in on each
other until Aug. 31 when they'll be in conjunction, just under 2
degrees apart in our sky To visualize this, consider that the
apparent width of the Full Moon is equal to ? degree and that
the width of your fist held at arm's length is roughly equal to
10 degrees. The two planets will pull away from each other
during September. On the morning of Aug. 28, dazzling Venus will
be above and to Saturn's right. Two mornings later, they're
side-by-side. On the