I know this is late (I saw it on a couple of other blogs) but it’s still cool: the Moon and Venus together in the daytime sky.
I saw an occultation of Venus — when the Moon passes directly in front of the more distant planet — when I was in high school, and it totally rocked. I’d love to catch another one through a telescope sometime.
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Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
Contact me: The Bad Astronomer "at" gmail "dot" com
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November 13th, 2006 at 4:54 pm
That’s almost freaky! What a shot! I know it must be psychological, but Venus looks like it has Earth shine such that I see, kinda, a disk for Venus.
November 13th, 2006 at 4:56 pm
Wow!
I’ve never seen an image that included both the Moon and Venus at the same scale. To be honest, I’m astonished that the crescent of Venus is so large.
Also, is the albedo of the Moon so much less than that of Venus? The relative dimness of the lunar crescent is also amazing. (Yes, I know about specular reflection and shadow masking, which make the full moon so bright compared with other phases… but still, the Moon is a LOT closer than Venus!)
November 13th, 2006 at 5:03 pm
Wow. That is one young moon. Or old. Any idea what the angular distance from the Sun to the Moon was when this was taken?
November 13th, 2006 at 5:11 pm
Awesome!
I think that’s a young moon, Harold.
November 13th, 2006 at 6:59 pm
George: That may be what’s called the “Ashen Light”. It was discussed by Patrick Moore on his TV programme a couple of nights ago here in cloudy wet England, and is thought to be the actual heat glow from the planet’s surface – although how that can be seen through the thick Venusian clouds is a problem I’ll leave to someone else.
November 13th, 2006 at 7:01 pm
… However on closer examination of the image , it would appear to be nothing more than a by-product of jpeg image compression!
The Ashen Light phenomenon is real though, and has been seen and debated for hundreds of years apparently.
November 13th, 2006 at 8:07 pm
The average albedo (reflectivity) of the Moon is around 17%, and Venus is more like 90. So yes.
November 13th, 2006 at 9:36 pm
Even though I’m an avid Mars fan the only planet I have managed to spot is Venus, and I even got take a digital photo of it. Spectacular sight it was. But to get Venus and the Moon is a real bonus.
November 13th, 2006 at 11:42 pm
Awesome pic!
November 14th, 2006 at 12:07 am
I’ve got another new wallpaper! Seems to happen every other week or so.
- Jack
November 14th, 2006 at 8:20 am
That’s gotta be one of the most incredible photo shots ever. I just had to download this to my system. Think I’ll print off a few copies and show them around work.
Thanks BA,that was great.
GAry 7
November 14th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
BA:
I thought the albedo of the moon was closer to 10%- fr some reason I remember the highlands as .12 and the mare as .08. Are those numbers wrong?
Donnie B.
If you want to convince yourself that the moon is dark, try this trick:
1. get a camera with manual exposure, a light meter, and the biggest lens you can afford.
2. Go outside on a bright sunny day, point your camera at some asphalt, and record the light meter reading for the exposure time most appropriate for blacktop.
3. Using that exposure setting, take a picture of the moon at night.
November 15th, 2006 at 11:32 am
That is a very cool pic.
BTW, Harold and Grand Lunar, I think it’s an old moon. It was taken from Hungary (northern hemisphere), and the moon orbits anti-clockwise as viewed from above the north pole.