The Crescent Moon and Two Planets these nights...

Over Australia & New Zealand, the crescent moon, Jupiter & Venus form a “smiley face” in the night sky – here we can ‘t see it that was (the moon is above the planets in the Northern hemisphere), but it will be bright in any event. Start praying for a clear sky on Monday night, since Jupiter and Venus have begun December in conjunction and if all goes well, the two planets are bound to light up the southwestern sky at dusk on the first of the month.Moreover, above the pair of planets, a crescent moon will also be visible on December 1st.The brightest of the two, Venus, is set to remain high in the southwest all throughout the month, while Jupiter will be descending the western skies during December.Venus is usually visible at ultra bright magnitude (negative fourth), whereas Jupiter can be spotted at negative second magnitude. The former planet sets after 8 p.m., while the latter, before 6 p.m.At the end of the month, Venus and Jupiter will be joined by Mercury, visible at zero magnitude, in conjunction with the planetary duo, and will be positioned at Jupiter’s right.Nevertheless, this is not the only event of the like that will take place this first winter month, since on December 12, the full moon is set to be the closest to Earth since 1993, 221,554 miles away from our planet. The moon will not come this close to Earth again until 2016.Belgian astronomer and mathematician Jean Meeus has revealed that on January 1st, 2257, the full moon would come even closer than this year, at 221,439 miles.As for the trio that will illuminate the night sky Monday night, which can be seen approximately 17 degrees above the horizon, between 6 and 7:30 p.m., the celestial objects comprising it are 240,000 miles away (the Moon), 3 million miles away (Venus) and 539 million miles away from Earth (Jupiter).