THREE PLANETS REAPPEAR IN THE EASTERN MORNING SKY (Updated)

Location: Lower Westside Saint John, NB, Canada  

Date Time: February 27, 2021 0630-0640hrs, March 3, 2021 0630-0650hrs  & March 4th, 2021 0615-0640hrs

Weather: Feb 27-Mostly clear, reddish twilight on eastern horizon, -9C, and a slight breeze. 

March 3rd-Mostly cloudy, with one clear patch in along the eastern horizon that ended about where the Planets should have been, -10C with reported windchill of -18C, a gusty 30-40km wind from the north, 90% humidity.  

March 4th-Mostly clear, very windy, from the north, -7C, 62% humidity.

Equipment: 20x80 binos with camera on March 4th.

Objective: To view Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury, which were supposed to be low in the eastern dawn sky.  

Report for Feb 27: Jupiter was very low, about 2 degrees above the horizon, but was the biggest and brightest by far. It was naked eye visible, with averted vision, against the brightening reddish sky. Mercury was a little higher and to the south. Saturn was higher still and further south and was by far the faintest, even in binos. Mercury and Saturn were not visible to unaided eye. I imaged these planets on January 10th, just before Mercury passed in front of the Sun and Jupiter/Saturn went behind the Sun, from our view point. In other words, the 3 planets which disappeared from the evening sky just after January 10th, have now reappeared in the Morning sky! See my Jupiter-Mercury-Saturn post for Janurary 10th for images. No images were taken. No Satellites or shooting stars were seen.  

Report for March 3rd: Every morning since Feb 27 has been cloudy. Scanned the part of the eastern horizon that was clear with binos, but couldn't see any of the planets. The clouds must have been covering them. Beautiful reddish sky on the eastern horizon. Wind were so strong it blew my tripod over. Too windy for imaging, so no images. Supposed to be clear tomorrow...

Report for March 4th:  Finally, a clear, beautiful morning to capture an image and view the newly reappearing planets.  Jupiter is much higher than it was at the same time of day on Feb 27th.  It is much closer to Mercury, as well.  Saturn is very, very faint, and just barely showed up in binocular field of view and in the images.  Strong, steady winds, from the north made imaging next to impossible.  Of four images I was able to take, winds ruined three of them.  Bitter cold.

A waning gibbous Moon was high in the west.

focal length = 120mm, f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/8th second.