Dance of the planets in the western sky
"A planetary conjunction is occurring over the next few weeks. Look in the western sky just after sunset any night this week.
"Your eyes will immediately be drawn to the brilliant planet Venus – it's brighter than any night sky object except the moon. When it gets dark, around 9:30, Saturn and Mars will be visible. Saturn is in conjunction with Mars on July 31, with the planets less than two degrees apart, to the left of Venus.
[Here's a sky map from Sky & telescope.com]
"Venus, Mars and Saturn will move gradually, night after night, into a tight triangular grouping in the early evening sky. On Thursday night, Aug. 5, the three planets will be closest together, forming a tight triangle that will easily fit in the field of binoculars.
"The triangular shape nearly goes equilateral from Aug. 6 to10. On Aug. 8, all three planets will be within 5° of one another. A thin waxing crescent moon will then pass the "evening stars" on Aug. 13."
Thanks!
(PHOTO: Wikipedia Commons, planetary conjunction 2008)
Comments
Just keep in mind that those aren't big light bulbs hanging in our atmosphere. Those are other worlds, just as real as this one.
It's easy to just see the planets as bright points of light and forget that you can actually go there. Well, maybe not you personally, but it's within reach. Humans have sent out spacecraft to all of these worlds.
On Venus, the surface is hot enough to melt lead. And you think it's been hot here the past few days. On Mars, water freezes and boils at the same temperature, due to the low pressure.
Not only is that not science fiction, but you can actually SEE these places from your house.
I love astronomy.
Posted by: Jack | July 28, 2010 2:30 PM