Look up on december 1 2008, page 1

Hello ATS,

According to the NASA website NASA this last week of november is a very special one if you love to look up to the planets of our solarsystem.
This is a special ocasion simply because the moon joins the two plantes so we have the three brightest object in our nightsky together.

This story ends with the best sky show of the year--a spectacular three-way conjunction of Venus, Jupiter and the crescent Moon

On December 1 at 7:36 p.m. ET, Venus and Jupiter will be in conjunction, the astronomical term for "really close together as far as observers on Earth are concerned."

If the skies are clear, stargazers will be able to see the planets shining just two degrees apart, with a partially lit moon sitting three degrees away from Venus.

The same two planets met up once before this year on the morning of February 1. They won't be in conjunction again until May 2011.

Of course, being in conjunction has nothing to with the actual distance between the planets.

Although they will both be in Earth's line of sight, Venus is about 25 million miles away in an orbit closer than Earth to the sun.







By contrast, Jupiter is 390 million miles away in the fifth most distant orbit from the sun.



Enjoy it,

BR
PPL

reply to post by Essan

---

Beautiful photo, Essan.

I've been noticing Venus and Jupiter together for a little while now (at least a week) in my SSW sky here in Pennsylvania, USA an hour or so after sunset.

Very striking and hard to miss if one was to look in that direction.

[edit on 11/29/2008 by Soylent Green Is People]

Here's my shot.
And the skeptics claim people mistake real UFO's for static points in the sky that cracks me up!!!

[edit on 1-12-2008 by atsbeliever]

[edit on 1-12-2008 by atsbeliever]


[edit: fixed image tag]

[edit on 1-12-2008 by 12m8keall2c]

Hi,

This is one i took last week, unfortunately the moon wasn't in view.

Regards
S.

Hello ATS,

Here some more background info about the plantery conjuction.

www.space.com...
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.

Very bright objects

Venus has adorned the southwestern twilight sky since late August. No other star or planet can come close to matching Venus in brilliance. During World War II, aircraft spotters sometimes mistook Venus for an enemy airplane. There were even cases in which Venus drew antiaircraft fire.

This winter, Venus is the unrivaled evening star that will soar from excellent to magnificent prominence in the southwest at nightfall. The interval by which it follows the Sun will increase from nearly three hours on Dec. 1 to almost four hours by Jan. 1. It's probably the first "star" you'll see coming out after sunset. In fact, if the air is very clear and the sky a good, deep blue, try looking for Venus shortly before sunset.

Jupiter starts December just above Venus and is moving in the opposite direction, dropping progressively lower each evening. By month's end Jupiter meets up with another planet – Mercury – but by then Jupiter is also descending deep into the glow of sunset. In January, Jupiter will be too close to the Sun to see; it's in conjunction with the Sun on Jan. 24.

*snip*

Keeping it all in perspective

Keep in mind that this head-turning display of three celestial objects crowded together will be merely an illusion of perspective: the moon will be only about 251,400 miles (403,900 km) from Earth, while Venus is nearly 371 times farther away, at 93.2 million miles (149.67 million km). Meanwhile, Jupiter is almost 2,150 times farther away than our natural satellite at 540.3 million miles (869.0 million km).

BR PPL


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[edit on 2/12/08 by Jbird]

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