On August 18 at 5:58 AM, Venus and Jupiter put on a colorful show shortly before sunrise. They were only 0.2° apart in the sky -- a conjunction so close that if you stretched out your hand, they could both hide behind the tip of your pinky finger.
But the real show started 48 minutes earlier that day -- at around 5:10 AM. At that time, the sky was just starting to show the dull gray that precedes daylight, but was still dark enough to show stars. You could make out the trees on the horizon, but little else. Suddenly, two bright "stars" popped out from behind the trees. Over the next few minutes, they steadily rose into the sky. By 5:24, they were ready to pose for this picture:
It was beautiful, even if not very colorful. However, there was much more than met the unaided eye. With binoculars, or in a photo using a 300mm telephoto lens and a little contrast adjustment, you can see that Venus and Jupiter were not alone; Jupiter had a line of attendants:
Of course, these are moons of Jupiter. So, that morning there were five planetary bodies easily visible in the tiny swath of sky covered by the tip of one's pinky finger. Awesome.
No comments:
Post a Comment