On November 7th a wonderful planetary-lunar grouping is visible in the morning sky when early risers have the opportunity to spot the Moon, Venus, Jupiter and Mars towards the east before sunrise. Of the three planets, Venus is a dazzling beacon of light shining at magnitude -4.4. Just northwest of Venus is Mars with the waning crescent Moon close by. There are a couple of major visual differences between the two planets. The first is brightness, Mars shines at magnitude +1.7, which means it's 250x fainter than Venus. At times Mars can also be brilliant - although never as bright as Venus - but on this occasion it's about as faint as it gets. The colours of the two planets are also noticeable, brilliant white Venus versus deep Red Mars. Jupiter the last planet in the grouping is positioned about 10 degrees further northwest. It shines at magnitude -1.8 and is therefore also much brighter than Mars but still 10x fainter than Venus.

The diagrams below show the view two hours before sunrise from mid-northern temperate latitudes and one hour before sunrise from mid-southern temperate latitudes.

See also
The Planets this Month - November 2015