Parade of planets

   

Have you been awake in the early morning this week?  There's a wonderful "parade of planets" visible in the eastern sky.  

Above, the crescent moon with Venus to the far right.  

Below, Jupiter is also visible high in the upper right corner of the photo:

 

 

And here's a close-up of that wonderful crescent moon:

 

 

 

Our view of the eastern horizon is somewhat obscured, but if you live high enough you might be able to add Mercury to the parade in the very early morning hours.

  

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!

Night sky

 

We've been doing field work during the last few nights, so it's been a bit busy.  Tonight (14 November 2019) the night sky was beautiful with what looked like two bright planets just above the western horizon — Jupiter and Saturn?  (I hear Venus and Jupiter will be very close together on 24 November, so you might want to take a look at the southwestern sky at dusk.)

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.

 

M & M

Did you look up at the sky tonight (19 September 2019)?  It was amazing to see Mars so bright just below the Moon!  In the photo below, look for Mars at the bottom of the image (almost directly below the Moon.)

 

Here's a close-up of Mars — a bit fuzzy, but you can see that intriguing reddish color:

 

And one of the Moon:

 

 A beautiful night sky!

Together again

 

Al reminded me to share this photo of the Moon and Venus.  [Click on the image for a larger version.]  Photographed from Cotati on 15 July 2018.

P.S.  Thanks, Al!

 

Happy Earth Day!

Just a few photos to help celebrate Earth Day!

 

 

 

Dark-eyed Gilia (Gilia millefoliata) 

 

 

Red Phalarope (Phalaropus filicarius)

 

The Water Planet courtesy of NASA

 

"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.

  

Celestial trio

 

Jupiter, the Moon, and Venus (from left to right), photographed in the eastern sky at ~6:50 a.m. PDT.

 

A close-up of Jupiter and the Moon

Cold and clear

 

Well, people in other parts of the world might be surprised that this seems significant, but 23°F is cold for this area!  I took this picture of our outdoor car thermometer (above) in the town of Bodega this morning at 8:07 a.m.  Brrrrrr!  And I'm guessing it will be even colder tomorrow (Thursday) morning.  We'll see!

Cold, clear conditions also made for good celestial viewing at the end of the day.  Have you been looking at the western horizon at dusk recently?

 

The waxing crescent moon and Venus are getting closer and closer together, and will be even closer to each other on December 5th.  Venus is very bright, and apparently will be at its brightest on December 6th (but you'll want to look for it on the 5th because it might be raining on the 6th).

Here's a close-up of the crescent moon.  It sets around 8:16 p.m. on December 5th, but will be visible during twilight before then.