Look up on december 1 2008

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.




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

i always enjoy a spot of sky gazing... It really puts us in perspective.


will this work in the southern hemisphere?
im at 45' south....??

cheers

Thanks for the info. I'll have to check it out. The two planets are extremly bright right now.

I've noticed them coming together over the last couple of nights, they are quite bright really and rather low in the sky from where I live, well at around 18:00 anywho.

I've been driving home through London these last few nights and had these 2 celestial bodies for company as I drive my wife and I home, at first they looked like stars .
Until recentlyI found out that they were planets and found them wonderful to look at, I shall definately be looking up most nights now and its typical that I borrowed my bro's telescope a few weeks ago and now I've given it back to him these 2 planets appear..........

Last time I used it I saw Jupiter ( I think) and I could just make out 3 moons in orbit, like very very faint stars , not being even a junior/beginner astronomer I wouldn't know what planet I saw couldve been another one.... It was still spectacular though..

I noticed the two stars LAST NIGHT and made comment to my family about it.

Very cool - but here in the Florida Keys - you can already see it very brightly.

It was only the 27th of November that the stars are highly visible here in the Florida Keys.

Hello All,

According to NASA this should be viewable from all over de globe.

BR
PPL

Cheers mate!
Fingers crossed for clear skies!

Thanks for this thread OP, I've been watching this for about two weeks and been meaning to find out which planets they were. I thought maybe Saturn and Venus. It should be spectacular when the new moon appears.

I saw the two planets last evening. They looked awesome. Venus was so bright. Unfortunately the moon wasn't near them when I looked. The planets were quite far west in the sky over Toronto early in the evening. They had the sky all to themselves. The effect at dusk was stunning. Visual poetry.

Agreed, it was beautiful last night, we've only had a couple of clear nights and last night, yes...it was stunning. I will be looking forward to the week ahead.

Rush

Here's a picture I took of Jupiter (above) and Venus (below) last night Just hoping skies are as clear on Monday!

reply to post by Essan

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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]

Beautiful shot, got some nice earthshine. And yes, I've seen people mistake Venus for "something unusual" even here on ATS. Claiming that not all instances of lights in the sky can be attributed to Venus or Jupiter is one thing, claiming that no instance exists where Venus is mistaken for a paranormal mysterious object is quite another.

[edit on 1-12-2008 by ngchunter]

Hi,

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

Regards
S.

Thankyou, It will be worth going out and looking at tonight, although I have to admit I have been watching them for a while now, just did not know it was Jupiter next to the planet of love... Been snowing and cloudy but supposed to clear tonight, fingers crossed...

Heavy clouds and snow here in my corner of the world today...

Dang weather gods!

Hello ATS,

Here some more background info about the plantery conjuction.





BR PPL


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[edit on 2/12/08 by Jbird]

I missed the occultation but managed to get a nice view of the close threesome before cloud obscured. And a superb sight it was too (Northern UK).

WG3

[edit on 1-12-2008 by waveguide3]