Hanging out with Jupiter

 

 

Hanging out with Jupiter tonight.

 

 

 

Photographed from Cotati on 25 January 2023.

Moon series

A series of moon photos taken just after sunset, 2 February 2022.  [You can click on the images for larger versions.]

 

 

 Lavender moon

 

 

 

Crescent moon and Jupiter

 

 

 

 

Waxing crescent above the fading sunset

 

 

 

 

Crescent in blue

The Great Conjunction of 2020

  

You might need to look closely, but yes, that's Jupiter on the left (to the south) and Saturn (with rings!) on the right (to the north).  Photographed from Bodega Head on 21 December 2020.  There was some cloud cover around sunset, but the clouds shifted to the south and east just in time, revealing a wonderful view of the "Great Conjunction of 2020."

P.S.  Happy Winter Solstice!

Under the Moon

 

We've been getting up early for field work during the morning low tides.  This morning (23 April 2019), I walked out the door and looked up to see a very bright planet just below the Moon.  Jupiter?  I haven't had a chance to check, but that's my guess.  Did you see it, too?  Photographed from Cotati at around 5:45 a.m.

 

"Planetary dance"

A couple of days ago, Skip commented that Mars was probably in the picture I posted of Jupiter, Venus, and the Moon.  He was right, so I thought I'd try again — and this time, to take a picture highlighting Mars.

Here's the first attempt (taken on 14 October 2015). Venus is at the top (the brightest), Jupiter is at the bottom (second brightest), and Mars is just above Jupiter.  It's small and reddish in color, so harder to see.  Can you find it?

 

Here's the same picture with an arrow pointing to Mars:

 

And so you can see it better (and find it yourself in the morning sky), here's a close-up of Jupiter (bottom) and Mars (top).  [Mars is very easy to see with binoculars and is distinctly red.]

 

Skip also mentioned two special celestial events coming up soon:

- Jupiter and Mars will be in conjunction (at the same latitude when viewed from Earth) on October 17th — the closest they'll be to each other until January 2018.  

- And then Jupiter will continue moving towards Venus, and will be in conjunction with Venus on October 26th.  

Watch for this "planetary dance" in the eastern sky just before sunrise.