I just glanced out a window and was stunned by what I saw: Jupiter, the thin crescent Moon, Venus, and δ Capricornus all lined up nice ‘n pretty in the west. If there weren’t clouds over the foothills to my west, I’d have seen Mercury too. If you have a telescope — a good one — you can even find Neptune lined up in there!
Tuesday night this gets even better, with the Moon edging closer to Venus. If you get a chance, go look! If you want more info on this lovely lineup, try Sky and Telescope’s website, and Earth & Sky.
December 29th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Spaceweather.com has a selection of photos of this event, submitted by amateur astronomers from California to Poland to Japan. Click on my name for the link.
December 29th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
I saw this, too.
I was taking out the trash, looked up, and startled when I realized the dusk sky with its moon already had two “bright” stars lighting it up.
While I figured Venus and Jupiter were still at it, I didn’t realize a third was in the mix, let alone a fourth.
December 29th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
A planetary conjunction? We’re doomed! The Earth will be destroyed, just like it is every time there’s a conjunction!
December 29th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Yeah, I saw it as I ws leaving my office. It was bee-oo-tee-full.
December 29th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Don’t trip over the upcoming leap second!
December 29th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
I just snapped a couple of pics of this as well.
http://tinyurl.com/9xqdjt
December 29th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
New Year’s Eve Venus and the crescent moon will be very close; and just after sunset you should be able to see Jupiter, too. I have a post about that scheduled for tomorrow so that folks can try for both nights (in case of crappy weather, which in my neck of the woods is likely to be the case).
But, as they say in the cruise commercials: get out there!
December 29th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Pity, looks like the moon has already set here. I’ll have to set my phone to remind me to have a look tomorrow.
December 29th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
We had clear skies at the right time last night, and my wife found we could even see the slender crescent Moon through the distant tree line. It cleared again late this afternoon, and Mercury was again obvious to the unaided eye by 5:10 EST.
Alas, the weather prospects for the New Year’s Eve conjunction sound poor. With the Moon close to Venus, this would also be a good time to look for Venus during the day. Of course, Venus is so bright now that a search when it transits would probably turn it up with little trouble. Now if I could just get clear skies around 3:00 PM…
Now under snowy skies, Alan
December 29th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
I know this isn’t necessarily the place for it, but lately I’ve been captivated by a bright blue star in the southeast, at about (a very rough estimate) 30 degrees altitude.
It is in that position around 9pm lately at about 4o degrees north latitude.
Since I live directly next to a city, I can only see a handful of stars out, which makes it difficult to use other stars as a reference point. Is this Rigel? That’s my best guess based on my star chart. Either way, it’s beautiful.
December 29th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
I’ll bet it’s Sirius, Jack. Brightest star in the skies, that one! You chose well!
I too saw Venus, the Moon & Jupiter this evening. I saw another star there and hurried inside to my laptop to run up Starry Night Pro and then hastened back outside with the 15 x 70 binocs to have a look at Mercury. What fun!
December 29th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
You may be right about that… it may be Sirius. Though, when I checked my sky chart, set it for the right date and time, I don’t recall Sirius being above the horizon. I’ll need to double-check that.
Sometimes I wish I could see more than a dozen stars at night…
December 29th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Yeah, Sirius, I was looking at that tonight too. I live at 38 N.
And the Venus, Moon, Jupiter line was just awesome. The young moon is my favorite as far as visual appeal goes. Worth spending some time outside without a doubt.
December 29th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
[...] Phil Plait also has an entry on his blog about the conjunction. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)A moon, and four planetsA Cluster of [...]
December 29th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Jack, you could always try finding out which star it was by using Stellarium from http://www.stellarium.org. Gives a great image and you can’t beat the price.
December 30th, 2008 at 1:41 am
I live on the California coast and what with the fog and clouds and two -three story buildings, I hardly ever get to see Mercury. On bad days, everything but Venus and the Moon can be difficult. I was walking to the store this evening, and after weeks of casually following Jupiter and Venus in unusually clear skies, I found myself trying to identify the bright, orangish “star” shining brightly between Jupiter and the sunset horizon…I didn’t even give it a second thought until I read this! In my defense, I’m not used to seeing Mercury and I must have caught it at the perfect time. The sun had just set, the marine layer was being pushed back by an eatsern breeze, and my visibility was even better than it has been lately.
I’ll definitely keep an eye out tonight, and maybe borrow a camera!
December 30th, 2008 at 1:59 am
[...] you’re reading this on the 30th or 31st of December, the solar system has seen fit to give us a lovely display to close out 2008. Look to the western sky after sunset and see Venus (the VERY bright point), the [...]
December 30th, 2008 at 4:04 am
I hope I can see this conjunction tonight….. skies willing.
BTW Phil, did you know you are a finalist in the Weblog awards…
http://2008.weblogawards.org/site-news/2008-weblog-awards-finalists/#more
December 30th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Thanks for the heads up, so to speak. I quite appreciate it. I am looking forward seeing Mercury, if I can. I don’t think that I have ever seen it, at least not on purpose.
I saw the tiny, faint sliver of the new moon just after sunset the other evening. It was grand!
December 30th, 2008 at 9:56 am
I just went out to see it, it was truly awesome!
I stood almost 3/4 of an hour outside at a “dark” place and gazed up. Venus, the Mood, and later on Jupiter were quite a view. But Mercury was covered by the thick dust in the atmosphere (damn pollution).
Btw: It’s about to be 6pm local time (CET).
December 30th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
The southern skies were clear of clouds at 3:30 PM (EST) and I had no trouble picking up Venus with binoculars and then in my spotting scope. At 60x, the phase (a bit over half lit) was far easier to see than under dark skies, when the glare of Venus is overwhelming.
Once spotted, it was obvious to the unaided eye. Look away for a second, and it was hard to find again. I suspect my eyes don’t normally focus for “infinity” when I look at the blank, blue sky. Tomorrow night the Moon will be closer and a good landmark – and focusing aid – for finding Venus. The crescent Moon was easy to spot this afternoon.
Clear skies, Alan
December 30th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Should have read…
Tomorrow afternoon the Moon will be closer and a good landmark – and focusing aid – for finding Venus. The crescent Moon was easy to spot this afternoon.
December 30th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Oh my God!!
I had been looking out on my porch and was completely taken back by the brightest star in the sky. What seems to look like Venus it is difficult to tell without a telescope.
While I was looking at this star/planet, I had seen an object that could not be identified as a plane. It rapidly moved from the left of the star/planet to the right in a blink of an eye!!
I live near the highest elevation within my city, and I was hoping someone had witnessed the same object I have. It moved approximately one inch (put to scale from the earths surface) from one side of the star/planet to the other.
Please tell me someone else had just seen what I had seen!!
Absolutely spectacular!
December 30th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Thank you Phil, I just went and looked, its beautiful. Almost removes the lingering burning from your photo on Skepchick.
December 30th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
I saw Mercury tonight and I showed it to my wife. Awesome!
Phil, thank you.
December 30th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
@Anthony,
It would help to know where you live and exactly what time it was.
There are what are called “Iridium flares.” The Iridiums are satellites with a highly reflective Main Mission Antenna. At times they can catch the Sun so it gets reflected down to you. When this happens their brightness increases greatly for a few seconds, and then decreases again. Depending on where you are, they can vary from moderately bright to brighter than Venus. And unlike most satellites, which glide across the entire sky, or appear out of or disappear into the Earth’s shadow at some point, Iridiums are only bright for a short time.
If you give your location and the time, it is easy to look up Iridium flares (and other satellites) and see if any might have been near Venus.
Clear skies, Alan
December 30th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
It was too cloudy to see the conjunction here, but I downloaded Stellarium, and can confirm the star I had posted about earlier is indeed Sirius.
On another note, I apparently never noticed that the asterism that I THOUGHT was the big dipper is in fact NOT the big dipper, the little dipper, or any other dipper. It’s Orion. From my point of view, Orion’s Belt looked like the “base” of the “big dipper,” or at least what I thought was.
I feel dumb. But, glad that I know now. Thanks for showing me Stellarium, though. This is going to help me a lot.
December 30th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
@Anthony,
Actually, it somehow escaped me that you wrote “It rapidly moved from the left of the star/planet to the right in a blink of an eye!!”
That sounds more like a meteor than a satellite.
Oddly, I found there was a nice magnitude -6 fairly near Venus from my house at 4:58 PM today. I wish I’d checked before it happened!
Clear skies, Alan
December 31st, 2008 at 1:16 am
@Alan,
I really appreciate the information provided. I am located in Massachusetts and the time at which I had witnessed this event was between 8:30pm – 8:45pm.
It seems plausible that your explanation could be the result of “Iridium flares”. The only question I would have is how it maintained the distance from the left side to what seemed like the exact distance from the right side afterwords.
It literally seemed like a split second when this had occurred.
Thanks Alan, Anthony
December 31st, 2008 at 5:38 am
I saw it!
And it was really cool.
I missed Jupiter, though. And light pollution is a problem where I live, so I miss out on many stars.
December 31st, 2008 at 7:50 am
@Anthony,
For Iridiums, the location has to be quite precise. I did, however, run satellites and Iridiums for Worcester, MA, and the time is just too late. By 8:30 PM, the Sun is far enough below the horizon – almost 45 degrees – that the satellites are also up in darkness and not visible.
Since you posted your report at 5:20 PM on the 30th, I am assuming the sighting was on the 29th (not that it would change the results).
As to the equal distance comment – such coincidences happen and we tend to notice them. I once saw a bright meteor start at Bellatrix and end at Saiph, essentially cut right across Orion. I thought “That’s neat, and it would have made a great photo!”
Clear skies, Alan
December 31st, 2008 at 10:32 am
@Anthony, heavens-above.com is a great resource for finding out what satellites (including Iridiums) might have been in the sky during an observing session. You enter your location and a date, and you get a list of what was visible when and where. It also is good for planning a session of satellite-watching, and is probably helpful to anyone trying to avoid getting satellite trails on astrophotos. (I haven’t seen those in magazines quite as often as I used to. I assume that during the image stacking process, any images with satellites are cropped or removed?)
I was planning to use the Moon as a locator for a daytime observation of Venus, but we are clouded out with a minor snowstorm today.
December 31st, 2008 at 2:01 pm
[...] case you missed it over the last few nights ( See this, this and this ) the planets Venus, Jupiter and Mercury, along with the Moon, are putting on a fantastic show in [...]