Skywatching

[rfunk]

Anyone else watch the moon go down this evening? Wow, yet another time I wish I had a telephoto lens on my digital camera. (I've had to accept the fact that the lens on my digital is too wide-angle to get any good moon shots, ever, and I've gotten too spoiled by the instant gratification of digital to go back to my old all-manual film SLR.)

But I'm wondering about the identity of the bright thing in the sky near (left of) the moon tonight. I've been noticing it and a similar one in the south (but higher, maybe 30 degrees up) around dusk for weeks now. (Obviously the first one is not always next to the moon.) Their brightness makes them stand out, and I would assume that they're planets, probably Venus by the moon tonight.

Except for one thing: They sometimes appear to have length, rather than being little balls or points of light. Maybe 5-10 times longer than wide.

Planets don't have such proportions, unless the rings of Saturn have become a lot thicker lately. I wondered about satellites, but they either visibly move across the sky or don't set in the west with the rest of the sky. Similarly, these aren't airplanes.

I suppose comets could be a possibility, but I think I would've heard about comets this bright.

So I figure planets remain the most likely answer, combined with some weird atmospheric phenomenon that's blurring the light across a distance rather than just causing twinkling.

So has anyone else seen what I'm talking about?


(BTW, I realize that this could all be a localized phenomenon around Canton, but I did at least see the higher southern one Friday night on I-70 about 30-60 miles east of Columbus.)

Comments

moon and venus

[duriyah.livejournal.com]

The thin crescent moon and Venus beside it were brilliant tonight! According to this sky almanac, tonight "The thin waxing crescent Moon shines low in the west at dusk amid Venus, Saturn, and Regulus. Bring binoculars!"

For last Thursday, it says, "As twilight fades, spot Venus low in the west. Look above it by about a finger-width at arm’s length for much dimmer Regulus. Saturn is farther to Venus’ right." Perhaps what you saw on Friday was Venus and Regulus blending together.

Re: moon and venus

[lillassea.livejournal.com]

I loved that eyelash-fine crescent moon tonight! It was low on the horizon and almost amber-colored when I saw it.

Re: moon and venus

[duriyah.livejournal.com]

Yes the color! It was so strange to see such a tiny sliver of crescent that looked so reddish.

Re: moon and venus

[rfunk.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link.... "The Venus-Saturn-Regulus trio sets by the time it’s completely dark, leaving Jupiter, higher in the south, to shine as the brightest point of light in the night."

Ah, so it's Venus in the west, and Jupiter in the south, and apparently just some sort of trick of the light or atmosphere or eye or brain making them look elongated.

Re: moon and venus

[duriyah.livejournal.com]

Yes, I also saw a very bright Jupiter in the south, with a red star nearby, which I think was Antares, in Scorpio.

A little more searching dug up this diskmap of the apparent planetary disks as viewed from earth. Venus was at crescent last Friday, and so it's apparent dimensions would be several times longer than wide. Perhaps that accounts for the phenomenon you saw.