Astronomy Picture of the Day

NASA ^ | 1/2/09 | Tamas Ladanyi (TWAN)

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Alpine Conjunction
Credit & Copyright: Tamas Ladanyi (TWAN)

Explanation: Did you see it? The last conjunction of Moon and bright planets in 2008 featured a young crescent Moon and brilliant Venus in the west after sunset on December 31st. Seen here in dark, clear, mountain air from Mönichkirchen, Austria, are the two celestial beacons that dominate planet Earth's night sky. That pair was hard to miss, but skygazers watching lower along the western horizon in early twilight might also have glimpsed a pairing of Jupiter and Mercury as they both wandered closer to the Sun in the sky at year's end. Still, while this single, 5 second long exposure seriously overexposes the Moon's sunlit crescent, it does capture another planet not visible to the unaided eye. The tiny pinprick of light just above the photographer's head in the picture is the distant planet Neptune.

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[proudofthesouth]

Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful! I love photos of full moons (and lightning!)

[Sudetenland]

Can’t see the “pinprick,” but I can see Orion’s belt above his head...nice pick.

[Zechariah11]

Beautiful picture. Thanks. I’m not sure which pinprick of light the caption is referring to — there’s more than one.

[SouthDixie]

Venus is a nice buffer before Aquarius...tighten those seatbelts folks !

[Kevmo]

2157604 bmflr

[Conan the Librarian]

Hate to burst your bubble, but, that’s not Orion. Orion would be on the other side of the sky from this perpective. In fact, if the Moon and Venus appeared near Orion like that, it would be the end of the world as we know it as the earth’s tilt would be wrong and all kinds of bad things would have to happen. At the time that photo would have been taken (my guess is about 5:30 to 7:00 local time) Orion would just be rising to the East. Venus and the Moon would be setting about 8:00 or so that night. (A quick check of my planetarium program that I use says that anyway)

Those three stars are 42, 45, and 46 Capricorn. The two brighter stars are Gamma and Delta Cap.

As for the Moon, the left part of the Moon is lit by Earthshine and the smaller, brigher cresent shape of the right is Sunshine.

This is a really nice photo!

[Sudetenland]

Don't mind me, I just saw a familiar pattern. Ya gotta admit, with those three in the position they're in and the star in between the moon and Venus, the other star just above and to the right of the moon, and the one just above the lone pine tree, it's a very coincidental similarity (probably due to the superior light-gathering of the camera lens).

I didn't give any thought to the orientation (vertical vs. sideways, or the compass direction when I said that, but your definitely correct, there's no doubt about it. I've been watching Venus (up and down in the West) and Saturn (across the sky) all this fall, and the earlier conjunction between them and the moon...in Houston the "stars" have to be pretty darn bright to see from my front yard.

[siamesecats]

Yes, I did see the Moon & Venus 12-31-08.
Absolutely beautiful.
Thanks for a great picture!