Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Special Dual-Planet, Bright Star, and Young Moon Conjunction

Tonight, September 28, 2011, two planets, the young moon, and a bright star will all conjunct, giving us a beautiful spectacle of four different objects. As you can see in the picture below, the young moon's crescent faces down towards earth, as Venus (which has returned to the sky!) and Saturn cower below it. The bright star Spica is above them all; earlier this year Spica and Saturn were in conjunction, funny how the objects are really moving now. But you must have special viewing commodities to view this special conjunction. EarthSky.com writes:
"However, an unobstructed horizon in the direction of sunset is absolutely essential for witnessing this gathering of phantoms in the twilight. At our mid-northern latitudes, the celestial foursome sets too soon after sunset to be visible."
Although the new moon was yesterday, viewing the crescent will be incredibly difficult, but if you live more southern, you might be able to see more.

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