Close past

Mars and Jupiter only 0.38 of a degree apart in the morning sky.

ho151017mo

Yes, late. There had been a possibility that this would be a guest post to this weblog, but that hasn’t yet transpired. More later.

Tomorrow morning the planets will be almost as close.  Here is part of the picture on a larger scale:

ho151017moScale1

 

9 thoughts on “Close past”

  1. At the risk of boring you and your regular readers, Guy, I humbly (and repetitively) offer up another image from Fredericksburg, Virginia of the morning planetary show, this time Saturday, October 17:

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/starvergnuegen/22243273835/in/dateposted-public/lightbox/

    My camera is due for a cleaning, which necessitates that I use photo-editing to digitally erase unsightly blemishes from the raw images, but I don’t want to take it to the camera shop now for fear that it won’t be back in time to catch the Venus – Jupiter conjunction coming up soon!

        1. According to the Astronomical Calendar, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter will appear within a circle of diameter 3.35 degrees, 45 degrees west of the Sun, at 0300 UT 26 October.

          SkySafari 4 planetarium software shows the three planets within 5 degrees of one another from 22 Through 29 October, as seen at 0600 PDT in San Francisco.

          1. Anthony,

            Thanks very much for the quick answer! The scene on the morning of the 22nd, this time with a bit more scenery in the foreground to make it interesting, shows that Jupiter has just passed between Chi and 59 Leonis, and that the three planets are arrayed such that they make a graceful curving arc with Sigma Leonis to the lower left of Mars:

            https://www.flickr.com/photos/starvergnuegen/22194545958/

            The show continues ~ I hope our clear morning skies do as well!

  2. Figures the time for this viewing is the same as me being away from my apartment with perfect east viewing conditions for me to be upstate to bring my houseplants in from this season’s first frost . The drive last nite was kinda cool, with crescent moon near Saturn setting, and as I looked into my side mirror, couldn’t help but peripherally notice the handle of the Big Dipper aiming towards Arcturus. Stargazing while driving @ 65 mph is really not recommended.

Write a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.