moon and venus

posted by [identity profile] duriyah.livejournal.com at 02:35am on 17/07/2007
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.
[parent entry] [link] [reply]
 

Re: moon and venus

posted by [identity profile] lillassea.livejournal.com at 03:26am on 17/07/2007
I loved that eyelash-fine crescent moon tonight! It was low on the horizon and almost amber-colored when I saw it.
[link] [parent] [reply]
 

Re: moon and venus

posted by [identity profile] duriyah.livejournal.com at 12:34pm on 17/07/2007
Yes the color! It was so strange to see such a tiny sliver of crescent that looked so reddish.
[link] [parent] [reply]
 

Re: moon and venus

posted by [identity profile] rfunk.livejournal.com at 11:28am on 17/07/2007
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.
[link] [parent] [reply]
 

Re: moon and venus

posted by [identity profile] duriyah.livejournal.com at 12:47pm on 17/07/2007
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.
[link] [parent] [reply]

April

SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
        1
 
 2
 
 3
 
4
 
 5
 
 6
 
 7
 
 8
 
 9
 
 10
 
11
 
 12
 
 13
1
 14
 
 15
 
 16
 
 17
 
18
 
 19
 
 20
 
 21
 
 22
 
 23
 
 24
 
25
 
 26
 
 27
 
 28
 
 29
 
 30