Morning Skies - Planetary Delights !

Venus-Saturn-Mars
Its an early start to the day, but rising at 5 am has its rewards !
Looking to the East right now, the early bird will catch the "astronomical worm" and be rewarded with the sight of brilliant white Venus, Yellowish Saturn & the Giant Star Regulus in the constellation Leo "The Lion", forming a lovely right angle triangle.
The star map below shows it as seen from Gove NT Australia, but it can be seen most places in the world (up the other way if you are in the northern hemisphere).
Even as we look at this striking asterism, our eyes will be drawn up to the bright red wanderer passing into the feet of the constellation Gemini "The Twins". This is of course the growing disk of the planet Mars, as it continues it's steady march across the night sky towards it's Christmas present to us all, when it reaches opposition to us on the 25th of December.
Opposition being when Mars is in the opposite side of the earth to the sun, meaning that Mars will rise in the east as the Sun sets on December 25th.

So make the effort in the early hours of the morning to see this planetary Trio, which even with a small telescope will show their shape & colours.
Venus is at almost 1/2 phase right now (thats right, Venus has phases just like the moon !)
Saturn is slowly growing in apparent size as the earth catches up with the ringed planet in its orbit.
Mars will grow 1/2 as big again in its apparent size by Christmas, but already dark surface features are already becoming visible with a telescope.
No doubt you will need to rug up if you are in the northern hemisphere, but make the effort and get out under the morning sky to view this lovely planetary trio.