Monday, December 01, 2008

Conjunction of the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter: I saw it!

I was walking out of work today at 6:10 or so at the end of my new twelve-hour shift, and I was happily surprised that the cloud cover had broken enough to give us a clear view of the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter forming an inverted triangle in the West. I pointed this out to the guy I happened to be exiting the building with.

"Oh, is that what those bright things in the sky are?" he responded. "If you hadn't told me, I wouldn't have known."

I had the celestial trio in front f me most of the way home, so I was able to note the slow but steady motion of the Moon as it gradually pulled away from the two planets. By the time I got home, it had sunk out of easy view, so I didn't even try to get a picture. (We'll see how well a cell phone photo comes out.)

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Time for bed. 3:00 AM will be coming around soon. I may not be keeping this schedule for long...though after it ends, I have no idea what happens next. More later.
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1 comment:

  1. Anonymous12/01/2008 8:48 PM

    Wasn't it beautiful?!?!? I was disappointed yesterday because it was raining here & I thought that was when the conjuction was going to happen. This evening, I was at my Dad's during a power outage. His backyard has a great view of the western sky and the sun had just set, so I thought I'd check to see if the planets were still visible (I thought the moon would already be out of the pictue). There they were, forming a brilliant triangle in a perfectly clear, cold sky. Thanks, DB, for the "heads up" about this lovely celestial phenomenon!

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