Starship Asterisk*

Ann: Look up there, Mom! That's Jupiter! Can you see it?

Mom: Yes.

Ann: And look over there, Mom! That's Venus! Can you see it?

Mom: No.


Ann: Look up there, Tage! That's Jupiter! Can you see it?

Tage, Mom's friend: Yes.

Ann: And look over there, Tage! That's Venus. Can you see it?

Tage: No.

(Disclaimer: This man is not Tage.)


Ann

Okay, I saw a UFO this morning. I saw it in the western part of the sky at about 7.00 a.m.

A UFO, as you all know, is an unidentified flying object. That's what I saw. The thing flew, and I most certainly couldn't identify it.

Since I saw it in the western part of the sky, I first thought it was a plane. Kastrup, the airport of Copenhagen, is due west from me, so I see a lot of planes in that part of the sky.

But this thing didn't look like a plane. A plane has big wings with lights on their tips, and it also has a light on its nose. So when you see a plane, you can see a green light on the starboard wing, a red light on the port wing, and a white light at the nose. The lights are widely separated.

But this thing I saw this morning was all white. It was very white, neither blue-white nor yellow-white. It was elongated, but not as elongated as a plane. It was bright, brighter than Jupiter.

And it moved. But that's not all. It "jumped". I wasn't sure that it actually jumped, because the sky was full of clouds rushing across the sky in the strong wind. Perhaps the light appeared to jump because of the way clouds moved across it and sometimes covered it and sometimes left it "bare"?

I took my binoculars and tried to see the moving thing through them. For perhaps twenty seconds I was unable to locate it. Then it appeared in my field of view. But to my amazement, it almost immediately "blinked out" and then appeared in another part of my field of view. And then it blinked out again and reappeared almost instantly in yet another part of my field of view.

It didn't move in anything like a straight line. First I saw it in the left part of my field of view, then in the right part of it, then in the upper part of it.

It didn't fade gradually, either. It was either bright or invisible.

Then the clouds thickened and I lost sight of it.

So it was indeed a UFO, or maybe a UJO, an unidentified jumping object.

Ann

I saw a stunning pairing of Venus and a very new Moon, first picked out a little before the Sun dropped below the horizon, but best seen against the late dusk, as in the picture.

I saw it, too, and what a lovely sight it was! My pictures didn't turn out nearly as well as yours; too much suburbia in the way.

owlice wrote:I saw it, too, and what a lovely sight it was! My pictures didn't turn out nearly as well as yours; too much suburbia in the way.

In the direction I took that image, it's 180 miles to the nearest town, and 490 miles to the nearest city. It's a good direction for astronomical imaging!

I saw the crescent Moon and Venus today. And I saw Jupiter, of course. As soon as the sky is clear, Jupiter is ridiculously obvious.

Venus can only be seen when there are no buildings blocking the view of it. The buildings seem to be there all the time.

Well, I chose a few vantage points with a good view to the west and south, and I saw Venus and the crescent Moon. The Moon was beautiful and softly aglow with a lot of Earthshine.

Ann

Ann wrote:The buildings seem to be there all the time.

I've noticed that buildings tend to not move very much. Same with trees. Very inconsiderate of them, blocking the view like that. Sometimes, however, an earthquake or very large storm gets them to move out of the way, but in 'those' cases, I'd rather have the blocked view. Just part of my selfishness of wanting less pain and misery to deal with, coming out, i guess.

A moon with a lot of earthshine!

Before sunrise there was a vapor trail!

orin stepanek wrote:Before sunrise there was a vapor trail! :|

I got one tonight, next to Venus and beautifully lit by the Sun below the horizon.
Also tonight, the Moon and Jupiter flying together overhead, right after sunset.
Be sure to blow them both up for the full effect.

That is a nice Full Disc Jupiter you caught there Chris

Umm, Jupiter is always full disk. Only inferior planets show phases.

bystander wrote:Umm, Jupiter is always full disk. Only inferior planets show phases.

That's not true. Only inferior planets show a full range of phases, from full to new (or 100% to 0%). Superior planets also show phases, but only gibbous ones (or full, of course). Jupiter is currently around 99%; Mars can get as low as 87% (at quadrature). Jupiter will show just a bit less of itself next month, at its east quadrature. It's easy to see the phases of Mars, and a careful observer can just make out Jupiter's when it's near quadrature. Anything farther out would require an instrumental measurement.

That's really a nice picture with Jupiter and the vapor trail Chris!

orin stepanek wrote:That's really a nice picture with Jupiter and the vapor trail Chris! 8-)

Thanks- the color in the contrail was remarkable. (That's Venus with the trail, and Jupiter by the Moon.)

I also saw the gibbous Moon with Jupiter in close conjunction last night. And those are great pictures above too, well captured!

Update: I can still only see the moon and stars around as bright or brighter than Bellatrix's brightness. Stay tuned for more riveting observations from New York City.

This is what I saw tonight, in the sky as well as on the ground!

But Chris, thank you so much for your fine pictures. I always enjoy seeing them!




Ann

Ann wrote:

Click to view full size image

This is what I saw tonight, in the sky as well as on the ground!

But Chris, thank you so much for your fine pictures. I always enjoy seeing them!




Ann

Looks like Hot Chocolate weather to me

I have just been enjoying the most wonderful clear sky views of Venus, Jupiter and the Moon as twilight fell this evening. Normally I would just use a pair of 10x50 binoculars, but I decided to try looking at them through a bird/nature spotting scope I have. It has a 80mm objective lens and zooms between 20 to 60 times magnification. Well, I am amazed and delighted to say I could clearly see four of Jupiter's moons, three on the right hand side and one on the left, and I could even just make out two darker lateral bands across Jupiter's atmosphere; fantastic! Turning it upon Venus, well I could be mistaken here because the wind was blowing and the tripod was vibrating a little, but I am sure I could make it out as having a slightly gibbous phase . . would that be right? If so, I am delighted to say that is something I have never seen before with my own eyes!

Not quite night, but getting close. I was riding down out of the hills onto the south of the ranch, and caught this great view of the Moon rising above Pikes Peak (and some less famous local mountains), about 30 minutes before the Sun set. This was just with the camera in my phone, but it does sort of capture the moment.

I saw the Palomar Observatory--except it wasn't in the sky, I was!


(Seriously, though, I was on a flight from Denver to San Diego, and I'm pretty sure I saw the big white dome on top of the mountain in the distance.)

--
Sam

Starstruck wrote:

Turning it upon Venus, well I could be mistaken here because the wind was blowing and the tripod was vibrating a little, but I am sure I could make it out as having a slightly gibbous phase . . would that be right?

I have been thinking about this question, but I haven't had an answer for it, at least not until now. Now I hope I can say something about it.

The brightness of Venus varies, and in stark contrast to the Moon, it is at its brightest in its crescent phase, when it is on the near side of the Sun. Venus can only be "full", or very "gibbous", when it is on the far side on the Sun. But when Venus is on the far side of the Sun, its disk looks quite small to us, so it is (comparatively) not so bright. But when it is on the near side of the Sun, its disk grows large. And when it is in its crescent phase, the illuminated crescent of Venus is (apparently) larger, and therefore brighter, than the "full" or gibbous (small) Venus.

So how bright is Venus currently?

I checked my software, and it says that Venus is currently at magnitude -4.0. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_magnitude, however, Venus at its brightest will be at magnitude -4.89. (Please not the the more negative the magnitude of a sky object is, the brighter is the object.)

According to the same source, Venus at its faintest will be at magnitude -3.82.

I have previously "complained" that the present showing of Venus hasn't seemed very bright to me. If it is true that the apparent magnitude of Venus is currently -4.0, .89 magnitudes from maximum and only .18 magnitudes from minimum, then it sounds reasonable to me that Venus should currently be on the far side of the Sun, and it might quite possibly be gibbous.

Ann

Thanks for the explanation and trying to find out for me Ann, it's much appreciated. I have also been doing a little digging around online and have found a useful tool on the JPL website that simulates the positions and phases of any object in the solar system for any specified date. It would seem to indicate that Venus is indeed currently gibbous. Using the simulator, I selected Venus, as seen from Earth, for Jan 5th, 17:00 UTC, and chose that the 'body' should take up 30% of the image width. What I saw through my scope was much smaller, of course; more like only 2% of the field of view, but I am still reeling from the fact that I was able to even make out a phase through my non-celestial scope!

This is the link to the 'simulator' for anyone interested in taking a look . .
http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/

. . . 'nuff said !