Crescent moon between Jupiter and Venus November 2
8 comments Print Me Email to FriendTonight is Sunday, Nov 02 2008
Look in the southwest tonight after dark. If your sky is clear, you’ll spot a 4-day-old moon in the shape of a little crescent. Jupiter is the bright white dot to the left of the moon. To the right of the moon, you’ll find the brilliant, planet Venus. If you have a dark-enough sky, you’ll see that the moon is in front of the lid of the ‘Teapot’ asterism in Sagittarius.
The moon, Venus and Jupiter are the three brightest objects in the night sky visible from Earth. They all shine with light reflected from the sun. You might be asking yourself, If Jupiter is the biggest object in our solar system besides the sun, why is Venus brighter? The simple answer is that Jupiter is farther away than the moon and Venus. It’s as if you’re looking at three-story building in front of you and a 40-story building 50 miles away. The building in front looks bigger.
Besides looking bigger and brighter, Venus and the moon also show phases as seen from Earth – because they can move between us and the sun, with their lighted halves facing away from our direction. The moon is in a waxing crescent phase now. If you had a telescope, you’d see that Venus is in a waning gibbous phase – more than half lighted but less than full. Waning always means that the illuminated portion of a planet or moon is decreasing.
Through telescopes, all the planets in our solar system appear as little disks. These disks vary in size as they and we orbit the sun, and the distances between us and these worlds change. If you want to know the angular size of the moon or a planet on a particular night, the U.S. Naval Observatory has a great site. You can also go there to see Io, Callisto, Gannymeade and Europa (the four brightest moons of Jupiter).
I happened to walk outside while at work and saw the moon with 2 planets either side IN THE CITY no less. I thought that 1 had to be mars NOT even close.
it was actually amazing.i just couldn’t believed my eyes,i actually saw the moon between the two planets jupiter and venus.they were brighter than the common stars we always see.i was actually standing at a filling station refueling my car when i looked up the sky in search of the moon only to see this unique display.i was happy to have witnessed this.
Congrats. You now understand why 100,000’s of people are amateur astronomers.
Keep looking up!
Kelley
At times I saw the planets flash and it was so cool!!!!
At times I saw the planets flash and it was so cool!!!!
“iN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH.” I AM STILL AMAZED WHEN I SEE THIS KIND OF DISPLAY IN THE SKY. RIGHT HERE FROM MY BACK YARD. IT IS AWSOME.
“iN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH.” I AM STILL AMAZED WHEN I SEE THIS KIND OF DISPLAY IN THE SKY. RIGHT HERE FROM MY BACK YARD. IT IS AWSOME.
i couldnot believe my eyes. it looked so cool!