This week, you will be witnessing some spectacular views on the sky

If you are an early riser, you will be able to witness an extremely close encounter between Mars and Venus just one hour before the sunrise on Tuesday, Nov. 3. Both the planets will be appearing just slightly more than 0.5 degree apart, which is almost equal to the full moon’s width. Then, during the week, we will see Venus quickly pulling away from the much fainter Red Planet. Venus will eventually move towards the east.

Another splendid view in store for people looking at Tuesday’s sky during the dawn is that of the last quarter moon soaring past the Beehive, a scintillating open star cluster in the southeastern sky. During this event, the cluster will just be 5 degrees above the moon, which means the distance between them will be equal to the width of three of our middle fingers.

Beehive, an open star cluster in the Cancer constellation, is dazzling to be viewed by naked eyes, but just as a fuzzy spot. The other name the cluster is often referred to as is Messier 44.

Another fact that must be mentioned here is that this cluster is one of the closest ones to Earth; it’s situated just 577 light years away from our home planet. Views offered by telescopes reveal that there are around 72 member stars covering around 11 light years. However, when seen with naked eyes, it will appear that cluster is covering similar space in the sky that a couple of full moons would have taken up.

Starting late night Thursday, Nov. 5 through Nov. 12 skywatchers will be witnessing unusually bright meteors called fireballs in the sky. The dazzling shooting stars will look like radiating out of the part of the sky that houses the constellation Taurus. The yellow-orange colored shooting stars, according to scientists, will be moving slightly slowly compared to average meteors. It is expected that this week, if the sky remains clear and dark, up to a dozen such meteors will be visible per hour.

Then, on Saturday, Nov. 7, the early morning sky will host another stunning event. Early risers will get to see the thin crescent moon slip beneath the giant planet Jupiter and then pair up with Mars and Venus.