Comments on: Planet triangle graces the western twilit sky

By: Josie

Josie — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 16:39:38 +0000

Thank you Ivan now to find a dark(ish) corner of San Diego County….

By: Robert Carnegie

Robert Carnegie — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 22:59:07 +0000

Doesn’t this stuff cause earthquakes, or something?

All those planets pulling on Earth from the same direction, bound to do some damage…

By: Harold

Harold — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 04:16:47 +0000

hale-bopp @4, your pictures are beautiful! (Though I had to delete a stray parenthesis that got caught in the URLs.) I especially love the cloudy twilight one from San Diego!

By: zak

zak — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 04:09:18 +0000

bro thanks for that i am a neophyte and couldnt figure it out myself. wanted to know what i was looking at tonight. nice!!!

By: Harold

Harold — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 03:50:12 +0000

OK, just finished up my post with today’s pictures. I included links to all of my previous “Planetary triangle” posts, including the introductiory one with the links to the Jack Horkheimer videos.

http://anothermonkey.blogspot.com/2010/08/planetary-triangle-862010.html

By: Maria

Maria — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 03:24:09 +0000

Ahh, that makes sense. I was about to ask as well. I also thought Venus was the third brightest object. Man, first you people turn Pluto into a pumpkin and now you mess with the light of Venus.

I think I saw the space station go by a few nights ago. Something about as bright or even brighter then Venus and moving at a good clip. That or a satellite. Nifty to see.

By: Grimbold

Grimbold — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 02:28:41 +0000

“Wait a sec, isn’t Venus the third brightest object in the sky?”

I think the International Space Station is now marginally brighter.

By: Harold

Harold — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 02:15:13 +0000

Visibility has been hit and miss here, but I’ve been posting photos since last Thursday. I’m working on tonight’s post right now. Sunday night will be the closest configuration of the three, but the thin crescent Moon will join them on the 12th and 13th. Check out Jack Horkheimer’s excellent stuff on this, too!

One fascinating thing: even taking photos with my little Nikon Coolpix L4, I’m still able to capture some of the brighter background stars. And it’s fascinating to see them thunder by and change their position with respect to the planets from night to night. I’ll throw up links on a later comment, but you can just click on my name to get to my blog and scroll down past the Carrot Cake recipe and whatnot to the “Planetary triangle” posts.

By: Lonnie

Lonnie — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 01:59:49 +0000

I brought out the telescope for the neighbor kids to take a look at the trifecta. Lots of “Whoa”s and “Wow”s. Especially for Saturn. Impressed a few parents too. I would like to think I sparked a neuron or two in a future astronomer.

By: IVAN3MAN_AT_LARGE

IVAN3MAN_AT_LARGE — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 01:56:11 +0000

@ Josie (#8):

Where can I go to learn how to find these objects? I’m pretty good at finding the Sun and the Moon and sometimes I can pick out Venus (I think), but I would have no idea how to find the ISS or any other specific object.

I can recommend these links: * Your Sky * Heavens Above * Satellite Flybys

By: Conrad

Conrad — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 23:38:45 +0000

Wait a sec, isn’t Venus the third brightest object in the sky? Unless you count iridium flares, gamma ray bursts, and other phenomena the next brightest static objects after Venus should be just the moon and the sun.

By: Tribeca Mike

Tribeca Mike — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 23:13:46 +0000

The sight of the crescent moon, Venus, Saturn, Mars, et alia, last month literally knocked me off my feet (that case of Guinness contributed a wee bit). This month is almost as good.

I spied the twilight sky
And all I could do was sigh…

By: Neil Haggath

Neil Haggath — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 22:54:41 +0000

#1 Rhacodactylus:
The thing about Mars being its closest for a long time is a bit of misinformation which goes around the web every August. The record closest approach occurred in August 2003.

See www dot spaceandsanity dot com/miscmadpage8.html

By: Mike Sperry

Mike Sperry — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 22:43:02 +0000

Arrrgh! I hate the weather this time of year. We’ve been socked in with fog and overcast for a solid week: http://bit.ly/d8MxeA

By: Josie

Josie — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 22:30:46 +0000

Where can I go to learn how to find these objects? I’m pretty good at finding the Sun and the Moon and sometimes I can pick out Venus (I think), but I would have no idea how to find the ISS or any other specific object.

I know I could JFGI but I would prefer a little help from people who make sky gazing their hobby

By: kuhnigget

kuhnigget — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 22:09:23 +0000

The incredibly vanishing Lunar water post?

By: MadScientist

MadScientist — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 21:53:38 +0000

Is Mercury not too far away as well (or is it on the other side of the sun)?

By: Dan Fischer

Dan Fischer — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 21:49:14 +0000

Here is the situation as it played out in Germany two hours ago - with the flat evening ecliptic at 52°N and some cloud banks and trees quite a challenge ...

By: hale-bopp

hale-bopp — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 21:15:02 +0000

I have posted several pictures of the planets (the first one in conjunction with the annual Mars Hoax post to show that Mars is REALLY small, like a dot) for a couple of weeks now. Unfortunately, I have been fighting clouds and travel in my efforts to document their movements.

However, I have gotten a picture from Tucson on July 22nd (http://halfastro.wordpress.com/2010/07/22/1079/), the Hume Observatory on July 29th, (http://halfastro.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/the-ongoing-conjunction/), and San Diego on both August 1st (http://halfastro.wordpress.com/2010/08/01/three-planets-from-san-diego/) and August 2nd (http://halfastro.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/more-planets/). I was hoping to get some in Boulder this week, but it was cloudy ever night…and it’s not looking so hot now that I am back in Tucson for the next few days.

By: Darren Landrum

Darren Landrum — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 21:08:43 +0000

#1: Are you talking about Jack Horkheimer? That’s the show that introduced me to Isao Tomita.

By: Larian LeQuella

Larian LeQuella — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 21:04:34 +0000

I hear that Mars will be as big as the moon soon.

@Rhacodactylus, it happens every 780 days that Earth and Mars pass (synodic period). Because that’s not really lined up with viewing though, the best viewing comes around every 15-17 years. This graphic may help: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Mars_oppositions_2003-2018.png But it’s absolutely not this: http://www.treelobsters.com/2010/08/177-when-mars-hits-your-eye.html

By: Rhacodactylus

Rhacodactylus — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 20:37:49 +0000

It’s always nice when the directions read “after sunset,” that guy on public access was always saying things like “at 4 am you’ll be able to see [blank],” which if I’m still up at 4 am, I am waaaay to drunk to look for whatever he was talking about. I had heard somewhere that this month is the closest Mars will be to the earth for a very long while, I was wondering if that was the case.