Moon and Venus Travel Towards Mercury and Jupiter (Happy New Year!)

My House/Sky and Telesope ^ | 12/31/2008 | Dallas59

[Dallas59]

Wednesday, December 31



Venus and the Moon form a strikingly beautiful pair high in the southwestern twilight, as shown here. They're 3° or 4° apart as seen from North America.

Meanwhile, Jupiter and Mercury are also paired far to the lower right of the Moon and Venus. This is the evening when Jupiter and Mercury are closest, 1.3° apart.

Europeans are well placed for the best of both events above. Contributor David Likuski writes, "The Mercury-Jupiter conjunction is at about 14:40 Universal Time, while the Venus-Moon conjunction is about 17:25 UT. Therefore, 16:00 UT is about the middle of the two." This is around the time of sunset for London. "Overall, a good chunk of mainland Europe seems to have the good combination of darkness and altitude for Mercury" at the midpoint time between the two conjunctions.

After the New Year's whooping at midnight tonight, step outside into the silent dark. Face south; shining there is brilliant white Sirius, the Winter Star, now at its highest. Orion stands to its upper right; Procyon shines to Sirius's upper left. Off your left shoulder, Saturn glows moderately low in the east, with Regulus well to its upper right.

[Lazamataz]

I hate Venus and Mercury.

But I like the moon.

[ataDude]

I saw them tonight in Allen, Texas. Timely post... I was wondering what star that was. Now I know. Thanks!

[silentreignofheroes]

Happy New Year Dallas59,

From , South Alabama

[Dallas59]

Lol...I had forgot about that website...bookmarked.

[GSP.FAN]

Last night was clear set up the LXD55 for a test run..
Today all fogged in worse than San Francisco except for all Fruit and Nut cases...
Ah well C’est la vie...

Happy new year everybody..

[Not A Snowbird]

Nice!

[cripplecreek]

And we like cheese.

[ETL]

Mercury and Jupiter will not be moving closer to Venus and the Moon. The Moon and Venus are actually moving further east from them with each passing day in (as we see them in the sky) The Moon is moving east from the others fastest of all each day. But don’t get this movement confused with the daily east to west movement of the entire sky which carries all these objects across the sky every day. The latter movement is simply due to the rotation of the Earth. The former to the Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury and Earth’s orbital movements.

[InABunkerUnderSF]

What did you take the image with?

Happy New Year!

[Dallas59]

My old Olympus 500 SLR. I got the instructions on how to take night photos rightchere on FR. I put it through CS3 to get rid of the airplane streaks. DFW airport is in that direction.

[Dallas59]

Well...I was being “poetic”...Happy New Year ETL!

[unkus]

Thanks Dallas59. Happy New Year to all!!

[ETL]

For those of us on the east coast, all of these objects have set already. But tomorrow's another day (and a another year) and they'll all be visible again. However, the crescent Moon will have moved further east of Venus by then. Also, to see Jupiter and Mercury, you'd need a good view of the sky just above your south-west horizon just after sunset (Jupiter brighter and whiter, Mercury, dimmer and slightly orange). Since they are not too far from the Sun at this time (in the sky), they'll be setting earlier than Venus and the Moon (a couple hours earlier). Venus is currently setting about 3 hours after the Sun does, and is about as bright as it can get right now.

Happy New Year to you, too! And thanks for the alert.

[Atlantian]

Reporting from downtown Atlanta. Can’t see Mercury or Jupiter, but Venus is amazingly bright.

[wxgesr]

“Can’t see Mercury or Jupiter, but Venus is amazingly bright.”

Yes, but can I see Uranus?

sorry, can’t hep mysseff

[rellimpank]

-—bflr-

[jnsun]

Thanks. Venus and Mercury apparently on the same side of the Sun, Jupiter across the solar sytem.

[Conan the Librarian]

I saw it a few weeks ago from my back yard. It was very small and grey. :)

I got a great view of Mercury, Jupiter, the Moon and Venus last night from work, but, too many trees in the neighborhood to see Mercury and Jupiter from my house.

[RoadKingSE]

I hate Venus and Mercury.

Hate aside, you have to admit that they are great tennis layers. (:^o)