Jupiter beside the Moon

This morning as I was leaving for work there was a break in the clouds and you could see a bright star beside the moon. Only is wasn't a star, it was a planet. Usually this time of year you can see some of the planets line up along an imaginary axis between the moon and Venus. 

Up close to the moon it can be Jupiter, Saturn or Mars. I assumed it was Jupiter becuase it was so bright. A coworker has a cool planetary app on his phone. You hold the phone up to the sky and it tells you where the planets are at that moment. He conformed it was Jupiter.

The BBC is reporting that Mars, Jupiter and Regulus are lining up beside the moon in the mornings before sunrise. Other years Saturn and Mercury joined in the alignment. Only Mercury is hard to see because it's between Venus and the horizon. Saturn is cool because as Galileo discovered, you can see the moons orbiting Saturn through a telescope. Very cool.