Posted on 03/25/2023 2:42:46 PM PDT by MtnClimber
Explanation: On March 23 early evening skygazers could watch Venus and a young crescent moon, both near the western horizon. On that date Earth's brilliant evening star, faint lunar night side and slender sunlit crescent were captured in this telephoto skyscape posing alongside a church tower from Danta di Cadore, Dolomiti, Italy. Of course the subtle lunar illumination is earthshine, earthlight reflected from the Moon's night side. A description of earthshine, in terms of sunlight reflected by Earth's oceans illuminating the Moon's dark surface, was written over 500 years ago by Leonardo da Vinci. On March 24, from some locations the Moon could be seen to occult or pass in front of Venus. Around the planet tonight, a waxing lunar crescent will appear near the Pleiades star cluster.
For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.
I saw it night before last. Snow last night, but it was sunny all day, and I don’t see any clouds moving in from the West, so hopefully I can see more, tonight.
Isn’t there some conjunction of nearly all the planets going to happen soon?
I viewed it last night. Sublime.
Right now, Venus and Jupiter are close together in the sky, by line-of-sight only,
not physically close. They are close to the Sun in the sky, but close to the horizon after sunset. Further to the East is the tiny red dot of Mars, with the Moon nearby. The planet Uranus is also in this alignment, but harder to see- a pair of binoculars would be helpful along with a chart showing its position in the sky.
https://astronomy.com/news/2023/02/catch-two-great-conjunctions-this-week-in-astronomy-with-dave-eicher
It would help to have a clear Western horizon, with no trees in the way….
Hope this helps.
Thanks! :)
Been seeing these 3 celestial bodies every night for some time now.
Very nice...
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