Posts Tagged “Moon”

Right after sunset tonight, if you look in the southwestern sky in North America, you’re likely to be richly rewarded!  This is a night to get out the telescope and gather the kids together! You’ll see a close conjunction between three bright solar system objects: the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter. If you have binoculars, you might even be able to fit all three of them in the field of view.  It should look something like this:

What to Expect, December 1, 2008, Just After Sunset

I’m borrowing the following text from Space.com’s colomnist Joe Rao, since he already did all the work and I couldn’t say it any better myself!  Here is the link to the full article.

Every once in a while, something will appear in the night sky that will attract the attention of even those who normally don’t bother looking up. It’s likely to be that way on Monday evening, Dec. 1.
A slender crescent moon, just 15-percent illuminated, will appear in very close proximity to the two brightest planets in our sky, Venus and Jupiter.

People who are unaware or have no advance notice will almost certainly wonder, as they cast a casual glance toward the moon on that night, what those two “large silvery stars” happen to be? Sometimes, such an occasion brings with it a sudden spike of phone calls to local planetariums, weather offices and even police precincts. Not a few of these calls excitedly inquire about “the UFOs” that are hovering in the vicinity of our natural satellite.

A very close conjunction of the crescent moon and a bright star or planet can be an awe-inspiring naked-eye spectacle. Also on Monday evening, you may be able to see the full globe of the moon, its darkened portion glowing with a bluish-gray hue interposed between the sunlit crescent and not much darker sky. This vision is sometimes called “the old moon in the young moon’s arms.” Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was the first to recognize it as what we now call “earthshine.”

Those using binoculars or a small telescope will certainly enjoy the almost three-dimensional aspect of the moon, but Venus will be rather disappointing appearing only as a brilliant blob of light, for right now, it’s a small, featureless gibbous disk. That will change in the coming weeks, however, as Venus approaches Earth and the angle it makes between us and the Sun allows it to evolve into a “half-moon” phase in mid January, and a lovely crescent phase of its own during the latter part of February and March.

Jupiter on the other hand is a far more pleasing sight with its relatively large disk, cloud bands and its retinue of bright Galilean satellites. All four will be in view on Monday evening, with Callisto sitting alone on one side of Jupiter, Ganymede, Io and Europa will be on the other side. Io and Europa will in fact, appear very close to each other, separated by only about one-sixth the apparent width of Jupiter.

Please come back and share your experiences if you see this spectacle for yourself!  I know we’ll be out there!

UPDATED TO ADD:

I just took this with my digital SLR, hand held, auto focus, available light (natch!).  Click on the image to view it full size.  What are you seeing?

December 1 sky over Jacksonville, FL

1 Corinthians 15:40 There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.