When the Moon is in the Seventh House…
…and Jupiter aligns with Maaaaars.
This is an image of Venus and Jupiter in an early morning conjunction back in February 2008. The location is the Caspian Sea shoreline. Photo by Babak Tafreshi, via NASA’s astronomy photo of the day (APOD).
You know, I really hated Hair when I saw it during sophomore year of high school, but the lyrics are appropriate for the title of today’s post. Well, kinda, I mean I don’t know what the 7th House is, and Jupiter is aligning with Venus, not Mars, I just couldn’t help myself. I’m a cheeseball when it comes to titling essays. I once titled an essay on 1980’s and 1990’s femme fatales, If I Were Michael Douglas, I Would Never Have Sex Again.
In addition to being cheesy, I am also being lazy, or so you would think so by the many posts I write gleaned from NASA news. But I thought this was really cool, and wanted to pass it along to my legions of readers.
This week is bringing us a Sensational Spectacle in the Southwestern Sky (if you are living in the United States, that is).
The image above is an artist’s rendition of what the trio will look like once the crescent moon joins the dance.
The bright planets, Venus and Jupiter, are moving into conjunction this week, and as an added bonus, a crescent moon will be joining the bright star-like bodies in a tantalizing three-way. If the Moon were fuller and brighter, the show wouldn’t be so grand.
Check outside tomorrow night. Look just above the horizon to the southwest. The brightest object in the sky will be Venus. Venus tends to have a blue tint to it. Venus is quite lovely, and the easiest planet to see with the naked eye. Only the sun and the moon are brighter. I saw Venus very early in the evening here in Portland, and it set equally early. If you are looking past 7pm, Venus may be too low to see.
Then look for a bright white, almost creamy white, “star”, as it is Jupiter. If you know your constellations, look in Sagittarius Pay attention to where it is at, and then note how its position will change at it moves closer to Venus each subsequent night. The two planets will inch closer to each other before the slim cheshire cat smile of the Moon creeps up towards Venus. Although depending on your planetary position, the Moon may not be in the spot that the sky map shows above.
Of course, you can see Venus any night (except three months out of the year) and sure you can see Jupiter most of the time as well. But it is pretty special to see them so closely together. I once saw Venus and Mars in conjunction while on the eastern tip of Long Island at Montauk Point. The sky was as dark as you would ever want it, and I was all alone on a sandy beach, watching a red star and a blue star hang out with each other, or so it seemed.
Anyway, back to Venus and Jupiter, the show will only get better through the 30th, so get out there and impress someone by pointing out the celestial menage a trois.
And by the way, the Andromeda Galaxy is overhead, way overhead, tonight. See if you can find it.
In fact, the most-distant object that’s readily visible to the unaided eye soars high overhead this evening: the Andromeda galaxy.
It’s not much to look at — just a faint smudge of light, like a tiny puff of cloud. But it looks insignificant only because of its great distance — around two and a half million light-years.–Stardate.org
Venus, Jupiter, Moon, Earth, stargazing, NASA, stars, conjunction, sky, constellation, Sagittarius, Sun, Mars, Long Island, Montauk Point, skymap, Andromeda, galaxy
