ISSUE II

Issue II of The Astral Journal will be ready for free download by this weekend at www.kosmandu.com/taj.
Text preview from skygazing section:

Like last month the Moon will again occult the Pleiades star cluster (M45). This month this occurs at about 9:30 am Nepali Standard Time on 4th of the month. This means it will not be seen from Nepal. It will be observed from different parts of North America and Europe though it will not be observed from Southern parts of the world.

Mercury rises at 5h08m NST, Mars at 5h41m NST, Jupiter at 6h04m, and Sun at 6h37 on December 1st. Mercury will slowly enter the glare of the sun while Mars will rise earlier making it visible for the rest of the month. Jupiter will rise more than two hours earlier than the sun by the end of December and increase its brightness to magnitude -1.8.
Mercury, Jupiter and Mars will make a very small triangle in the morning of 10th December. Mercury will pass very close to Jupiter (less than one degree) which will be visible from some parts of the pacific (around 20 deg North +165 deg West near Honolulu) right before sunrise. These three planets will make another triangle in the morning of 11th December reaching east of Jupiter.
Venus is the evening star with a very bright magnitude of -3.9 for the month.
Saturn will be two hours earlier by the end of the month from its rise time at 22:42 on the first to 20:42 on the last. It shines at magnitude 0.7 till the end of the month while it nears earth.