I've seen them all month. Even saw Mars about a week ago. Pretty cool stuff. |
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For anyone in the northern hemisphere who has been looking up into the night sky for the past month you would notice the amazing luminous of Jupiter and Venus dominating the western skies after sunset. Mid-March marks a very nice conjunction for these two lords of the night sky as Venus transitions its way pass Jupiter on March 15, 2012. Although this is not really a rare event, previously posted by Oneironaut Zero back in 2008 and the next conjunction to occur in May 2013. However, what makes this conjunction quite special are a set of conditions that transpires this month for Venus. This month Venus is at it's greatest evening elongation which is it's furthermost angler distance from the dawning of the sun. Second, the angle of the ecliptic for Jupiter and Venus is at it's steepest for this month putting the planets 3 degrees from each other on the 15th of March. Mix these conditions together and you're in for a pretty nice visual treat as Venus and Jupiter's conjunction extends 5 hours after sunset. You can't miss it! Five planets are actually visible this month. Now get outside and look up! |
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Last edited by Ne-yo; 03-07-2012 at 05:00 AM.
I've seen them all month. Even saw Mars about a week ago. Pretty cool stuff. |
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The worst thing that can happen to a good cause is, not to be skillfully attacked, but to be ineptly defended. - Frédéric Bastiat
I try to deny myself any illusions or delusions, and I think that this perhaps entitles me to try and deny the same to others, at least as long as they refuse to keep their fantasies to themselves. - Christopher Hitchens
Formerly known as BLUELINE976
I made the Space Events thread for this sort of thing. |
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I've got a good view of them from here in Florida. Brightest things in the sky. |
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Dream Journal: Dreamwalker Chronicles Latest Entry: 01/02/2016 - "Hallway to Haven" (Lucid)(Or see the very best of my journal entries @ dreamwalkerchronicles.blogspot)
I didn't know which planets they were but a couple have seemed really bright recently. |
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Mars' closest approach to the Earth was a few days ago, so it's about as bright as Jupiter right now. Saturn is also trailing Mars close to the star Spica, it's easy to see all four planets in the same night. |
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whoa I saw this last night and thought: those are probably two planets. |
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Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake
We're having stormy weather here |
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I have been looking at them the last few days with my Newtonian reflecter telescope. Initially I knew that Venus was Venus because of the size and luminosity and used the Starchart app on my iphone to find out that Jupiter was the nearby planet. For anyone that doesn't have Starchart it is an awesome application for smart phones. |
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Please click on the links below, more techniques under investigation to come soon...
Nice, I was hoping they'd bring out Stellarium for smartphones, but this seems pretty good too. |
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I prefer Google Sky Map for Android phones. Uses the compass in your phone to find objects. So all you have to do is point your phone in the direction of whatever you're looking at and it'll tell you what it is. I haven't found an iOS app that does the same. |
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The worst thing that can happen to a good cause is, not to be skillfully attacked, but to be ineptly defended. - Frédéric Bastiat
I try to deny myself any illusions or delusions, and I think that this perhaps entitles me to try and deny the same to others, at least as long as they refuse to keep their fantasies to themselves. - Christopher Hitchens
Formerly known as BLUELINE976
Last edited by mcwillis; 03-18-2012 at 11:25 PM.
Please click on the links below, more techniques under investigation to come soon...
The worst thing that can happen to a good cause is, not to be skillfully attacked, but to be ineptly defended. - Frédéric Bastiat
I try to deny myself any illusions or delusions, and I think that this perhaps entitles me to try and deny the same to others, at least as long as they refuse to keep their fantasies to themselves. - Christopher Hitchens
Formerly known as BLUELINE976
Please click on the links below, more techniques under investigation to come soon...
I've been watching this conjunction. Tonight I got a look through my telescope. |
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How come the line they make is nearly perpendicular to the horizon? The UK has a latitude of about 51 degrees and the planets lie in about the same plane, so I can't work out why they don't make a large angle with the horizon. |
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Consider that the tilt of the earth could be contributing. So if the the line between the poles were perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic, the line between them would be not perpendicular. However tilting it changes our perception of perpendicular. |
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Previously PhilosopherStoned
Also the planets are not in the same plane though they will tend towards being in the same plane as t->infinity. Any orbit will be in a plane but the planes have non-trivial angles between them. So if the conjunction is occurring at a point in the orbits where the angle between the planets is accentuated then we would expect a non-trivial angle between them. |
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Previously PhilosopherStoned
I checked out Stellarium and it turns out that what I was thinking was right. When they're a decent distance apart it should make the kind of angle I had in mind. It's just that they were so close that the slight deviations from the plane gave them a pretty much arbitrary angle. |
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Haha, I use the dipper as a reference for everything. I find it the most easily identifiable. |
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Just that they could take on angles nothing like the angle they usually make with the horizon as they passed by each other. If they were in exactly the same plane they would pass over the top of each other and the angle would always be the same. |
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