Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest planets, have been marching toward each other for more than a month in the southwestern sky at dusk. As they’ve drawn closer together, the sight has been catching more people’s eyes, and now the show is reaching its climax.
This evening, weather permitting, you will see Venus and Jupiter blazing about a finger’s width apart at arm’s length. Look early enough and, far to their lower right, you can find the crescent moon just above the horizon…
Monday night brings the peak of the show. The two planets will remain as close as ever, and the moon will form a compact, extraordinary triangle with them.
The moon is currently 1.4 light-seconds distant, Venus is 8.4 light-minutes distant, and Jupiter is 42 light-minutes away. That’s how long the light from each has been traveling through space before it hits your eye.
It was absolutely stunning, last night.
Now you tell us, a day late?
Ive been seeing the planet alignment over the past week myself.
I envy your viewing.
Torrential snow yesterday so I couldn’t see.
“Looks out at the pacific northwest fog and rain”
Why that’s just wonderful I’m sure you all will enjoy it. Unfortunately I can’t even see the end of my property 250 feet away and haven’t been able to for 3 days now.
Its those hoodlum aliens screwing around with us yet again, folks. Please, they’re celestial pranksters, ever seen their crop circle works of organic graffiti?
I’ve been watching for almost a week now. Too bad the last couple of days and near future call for clouds.
here i hope jd doenst mind a plug for another site,
http://www.jackstargazer.com/
Jack Horkheimer, 5 min(or less) presentations on pbs are hokey in production quality, but entertaining and informative.
#1 – tonight should be the best – presuming clear skies wherever you all are.
I’ve been watching this lately too. Absolutely spectacular, especially when you consider being able to see the Orion nebula and Pleiades at this time of year too (geek alert!).
Someone missed scheduled this. It was for the inauguration.
We saw it on the 29th but we did not know what we were looking at. I told my wife that it was probably the International Space Station and the Evening Star. I learned yesterday that it was something entirely different.
Tonight’s the night!
Let’s keep our fingers crossed!
Don’t forget that Mars , Mercur and the Sun will also be alsmost aligned tonight.
Of course, you can’t see that because it’s on the other side. Correction: That last sentence is wrong.
Check out Stellarium as one of the best heaven watching apps.
I saw that a couple of night ago and wondered what planets I was looking at. It’s very bright.
The image shown is inaccurate. The moon is to the left of the Jupiter/Venus pair.
My pictures of the real thing are quite interesting as a composition.
Pictures or ban!(?)
I saw it. It was a jaw-dropping experience. Stunning, beautiful, awesome.
In case you didn’t see it, here’s a link to one of my shots from last night. http://tinyurl.com/6yygmp The picture doesn’t do it justice, but than again, isn’t bad for a 200mm lens.
Comment #18:
Cool pic. I like ultra-contrasts.