Monday, December 1, 2008

Check out the Heavenly Bods

No not mine, although I am beginning to suspect that my hips could house a small solar system. What I am talking about is a beautiful sight in the evening sky.

For the next couple of nights. The Crescent moon, Jupiter and Venus will be clearly visible and close apparent proximity to each other. The three together will look like there is an upside down frowny face in the night sky.

Even with all the light pollution near my neighborhood, I was able to get a good clear view. The sight is supposed to only get better over night. I just wish I had a telescope.

I did a quick google and discovered that although these three celestial objects do appear at the same time in the sky, we often cannot see it due to the timing, or the angle of the earth. More often we will get either Jupiter, or Venus alone. To see both together is a treat. It has been speculated that such a configuration is fairly rare, and may have been the view the wise men saw signaling the birth of Jesus.

It has been estimated that the next time such a display of our moon and our two brightest neighbors showing up so close to each other will be in 2052. I may still be alive then.

Such a unique sight makes me wish that every so often, everyone would just turn off all the lights, so we could get a real good look at our night sky. I think we'd be amazed at just how gorgeous our solar system is, even from such a limited vantage point.

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