Beautiful Equilateral Triangle in Pre-Dawn Sky

If you're like me, getting up before the sun is something you avoid doing.  However, if for some reason you have to get up before the sun, look to the East for a beautiful triangle formed by two planets and a star.

The planets are Mars and Jupiter and the star is Procyon in Canis Minor (the Minor Dog).  Jupiter will be the brightest of the three, at the top of the triangle and a visual magnitude of -1.6.  Procyon is in the lower right hand corner at magnitude 0.4 and Mars is in the lower left at a magnitude of 1.8.  

The magnitude scale is sometimes difficult to understand, unless you change the word magnitude to class.  Then a First Class star appears brighter than a Third Class star.  So a negative value (like Jupiter) appears very bright while bigger positive numbers appear dim.

Tomorrow morning (September 1) the waning crescent moon will be at the very center of the triangle, making the trio impossible to miss.  

Over the next few mornings, the moon will quickly exit the scene, but the triangle of Mars, Jupiter and Procyon will remain.

Equilateral triangle in pre-dawn sky.  Created by the Author using Stellarium