Look towards the east before sunrise on the mornings of December 6th and 7th and you will see a nice gathering of three planets and the Moon. Closest planet to the horizon is Venus the brightest of all. At magnitude -4.2 it's a brilliant object that's unmistakable. Located far northwest of Venus is Jupiter with Mars positioned between the pair. Jupiter, mag. -2.0, is brighter than any night-time star but still 7 times fainter than Venus. Finally, Mars is by far the faintest of the trio. It shines at magnitude +1.5 hence 25 times fainter than Jupiter. Despite that it obviously red in colour even to the naked eye.

On December 6th the waning crescent Moon passes 0.1 degrees south of Mars with an occultation visible from Australia, Central and East Africa, Indonesia, Southern India (2:42 UT). The following day the Moon passes 0.7 degrees north of Venus. This time an occultation is visible from North and Central America at 16:56 UT.

The diagrams below show the scene on the mornings of December 6th and 7th, 2015 from mid Northern and mid Southern Latitudes.