Keep watching moon, Venus, Jupiter
2 comments Print Me Email to FriendTonight is Tuesday, Dec 02 2008
Last Sunday, Venus and Jupiter were in conjunction. That means they were near each other and aligned north-to-south on the sky’s dome.
But these blazing beauties will appear almost as close together this evening. Be sure to catch them to the lower right of the waxing crescent moon at early evening, because Venus and Jupiter will set about 3 hours after sunset.
Venus and Jupiter aren’t really near one another at all, of course, but only happen to reside along the same line of sight now as seen from Earth. Jupiter lies almost 6 times farther away than Venus does. Venus, the 2nd planet outward from the sun, circles the sun inside of Earth’s orbit. Jupiter, the 5th planet outward from the sun, circles the sun outside of Earth’s orbit. If you find that tough to visualize when you gaze at these planets in the evening twilight, don’t worry. You’re not alone!
Now for some astronomical nomenclature. Mercury and Venus lie inside of the Earth’s orbit, so they’re referred to as inferior planets. The planets Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune reside outside of Earth’s orbit and are called superior planets. Yet, the term inferior planet is not synonymous with inner planet. Nor is superior planet synonymous with outer planet.
The inner planets – Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars – are the 4 rocky worlds that reside in between the sun and the asteroid belt. The 4 outer planets beyond the asteroid belt are the much larger gas giant worlds Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
This was truly a beautiful sight! I thank God for giving us so much to behold.
02/12/08 bein able to see Moon Venus Jupiter. How often does this happen?