Magical Dawn

Imagine the magical crescent of the moon with a bright enchanting Venus right above it in the eastern sky(more of the north-eastern sky)....what is called the chandrabindhu is dance forms. This was what I saw first thing today morning at 6 am, when I awoke to switch off the alarm and get back into my sweet sleep ! What 3 or 4 blaring alarms, deadlines, phone calls and what not could not do for the past few months - getting me to wake up early morning - the moon and the venus that I have been seeing for 19 years have accomplished by peeping quietly into my room through the window from behind the silhouette of a tree.

It was an enchanting two hours, sitting cross legged on my table and looking out through the window of my still dark room. Right below the moon towards the eastern sky was the Procyon(Canis Minor), one of the 3 stars of the Winter Triangle, along with Sirius and Beteguese. Obviously, my eyes automatically went towards spotting the Orion - The hunter - my favourite constellation and the one that I use as my reference area usually for observing the sky. From there, it was the Canis Major & Canis Minor, the dog companions. But there was one constellation north of the moon that I did not recognise...6 stars forming a closed irregular hexagon, north of the moon. I checked this site:
"http://www.astroviewer.com/currentnightsky.phplon=103.85&lat=1.3&city=Singapore&tz=UT%2B8"

It happened to be the constellation of Auriga. What attracted me to it was the bright star, capella. This "star" is a total wowwwwww ! Its a 4-star system aka a 2 binary-star systems put together ! Its known as the 'Interferometrist's Friend' :P

And finally of course, there was Reddd Mars right between the canis minor and the orion, above the moon and the venus. Just the previous evening I had spotted Jupiter, as I generally do most evening in Singapore. Finally it slowly began dawning and the shimmering stars magically faded away, leaving only the crescent and venus to dominate the magic of the dawn. A wisp of clouds passed the two of them, with hues of orange and red along the band of the horizon....it was one speechless moment in my life, that's not to be forgotten.

But obviously, the best moment of all my observations was the day I spotted mercury in the background of a clear sunset and a distict round orange ball, the sun ! That was the first and the last time I spotted mercury and I was such a layman then, that I thought I had spotted Mars !

However the sunrise today was'nt as good as the one that I observed last wednesday when there was just an orange globe in the slighly purplish sky, with a thin lining of 'translucent' clouds every where!