Thursday, December 4, 2008

Conjunction (Alpine) Junction

01 December 2008 - Celestial Triangle

I grew up with Schoolhouse Rock as background music to my weekends, making me incapable of hearing the word "conjunction" without automatically adding "junction." So it was fitting that I witnessed the recent conjunction of the crescent moon, Venus, and Jupiter at a pull off in the town of Alpine Junction, NY.

Conjunction over Varney HillThe celestial triangle over Varney Hill in the fading light.
Click the image for a larger view.

To orient you, that's the moon on the left (though you probably figured that out), Venus is the brighter and lower of the two "starry" objects, Jupiter is fainter and higher in the sky.

Crescent moon, Venus, and Jupiter in conjunction
This is the write up from spaceweather.com (thanks, Aunt Janet!)

Space Weather News for Monday, Dec. 1, 2008
http://spaceweather.com

When the sun goes down tonight, step outside and look south. Beaming through the twilight is one of the prettiest things you'll ever see--a tight three-way conjunction of Venus, Jupiter and the crescent Moon. The event is visible from all parts of the world, even from light-polluted cities. People in New York and Hong Kong will see it just as clearly as astronomers watching from remote mountaintops. Only cloudy weather or a midnight sun (sorry Antarctica!) can spoil the show.

The great conjunction offers something extra to Europeans. For more than an hour on Monday evening, the crescent Moon will actually eclipse Venus. Astronomers call such an event a "lunar occultation." Venus emerging from the dark edge of the Moon is a remarkably beautiful sight. Sky watchers across Europe will be able to see this happen.


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7 comments:

DrowseyMonkey-Photos said...

These are wonderful! Wow - everyone's sky watch photos today are great - but I really love these. So clear!

Anonymous said...

The alignment was different when we saw it, as we drove towards Watkins Glen from Ovid just after sunset on Saturday. The two planets were one above the other, with the crescent moon sitting on top of the hill across the lake from us.

Anonymous said...

kewl! happy swf!

Anonymous said...

Conjunction junction. Classic!

A.J. said...

Yeah, love it! "conjunction junction"... and, you're most welcome. Your photo was great; I tried with my film camera--who knows what will turn out? there are some awesome shots at the spaceweather.com site

Adirondackcountrygal said...

I saw that a few days ago and was stunned! I had to find out what that was!

Gretchen said...

Great shots for the theme. :) Happy SWF! I grew up on that show, too.

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