Starship Asterisk*

Triple Conjunction Over Galician National Park

Explanation: What are those bright objects hovering over the horizon? Planets -- and the Moon. First out, the horizon featured is a shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean that occurs at the Galicia National Park in northern Spain. Next furthest out, on the left, is the Moon. Easily the brightest object on the night sky, the Moon here was in only a crescent phase. The next furthest out, on the right, is the planet Venus, while planet Jupiter is seen at the top of the triangle. The long exposure from our rapidly rotating Earth made all of celestial objects -- including the far distant stars -- appear as slight arcs. The featured image was taken last Sunday night. Although the Moon's orbit has now taken it away from this part of the sky, the planets Venus and Jupiter can be seen superposed just after sunset until mid-August. The closest apparent separation of Venus and Jupiter will occur in one week, when the two planets will appear separated by less than the angular diameter of the Moon.

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Not so sure about this shot. From my perspective on the west coast USA, this arrangement took place last Friday, not two days later as described here. Plus while the foreground is nice, it would be nice to have a clear photo of these celestial objects, because it really was beautiful from my vantage point!

Nice, extreme over exposure. Art?

I concur Revloren, after seeing the beautiful grouping in two evenings, I was expecting to see a picture for keepers; something to set as a wallpaper.

Of the three reflections, on the horizon, two correspond to the moon and Jupiter. The one on the right does not seem to correspond to Venus, though. Is it from the lights of some distant city... a passing ship?

Tszabeau wrote:Of the three reflections, on the horizon, two correspond to the moon and Jupiter. The one on the right does not seem to correspond to Venus, though. Is it from the lights of some distant city... a passing ship?

Oops... got Jupiter and Venus reversed in my question.

I think the best view of a celestial event like this is with your very own eyes. Seeing a photograph couldn't replicate the feeling of joy of seeing something like this in the sky.

revloren wrote:Not so sure about this shot. From my perspective on the west coast USA, this arrangement took place last Friday, not two days later as described here.

Are you sure of your dates? From Colorado, I had this on Friday evening, and this on Saturday. Being further east, this image from Spain shows the Moon a bit more to the west. I'd say it's pretty certain that this APOD was made on Saturday, June 20, not Sunday, June 21 as indicated in the caption.

starsurfer wrote:I think the best view of a celestial event like this is with your very own eyes. Seeing a photograph couldn't replicate the feeling of joy of seeing something like this in the sky.

Perhaps. But I find that making a photograph of such an event greatly enhances the experience for me.

Hmmm... I don't mean to be a troll, but this to me is just a badly overexposed photograph of no particular artistic or scientific value. It does not match up to APOD's usual standards and, so, it puzzles me as to why it is here. Please shoot me down if I'm wrong. I love APOD (it's my home page) and I look forward to more of the artistry and science more typical of this site.

Here at the forum, people don't seem to like the picture. At Facebook, they enjoy it. Pretty sharp division of opinions.

Chris Peterson wrote: Are you sure of your dates?

Just some quick background -- the image-submission email from the astrophotogropher stated that the image was taken "June 20th 2015, 23:20h". I interpreted that as a time local to Spain and very near June 21. A quick comparison with other submitted images made this time-stamp claim credible to me at the time of write-up.

- RJN

RJN wrote:Just some quick background -- the image-submission email from the astrophotogropher stated that the image was taken "June 20th 2015, 23:20h". I interpreted that as a time local to Spain and very near June 21. A quick comparison with other submitted images made this time-stamp claim credible to me at the time of write-up.

Yes, from the position of the objects with respect to the stars, the image was made at UT 21:20 on June 20. Since Venus sets before local midnight, most people who have been observing this conjunction have done so late in each day. So the pattern here is consistent with what most people saw on the evening of June 20, local time, regardless of their location.

Hi, Mi name is Fernando Rey and i´m the author of this photograph.
The image was shot exactly on June 20th 2015 at 23:20:46h
I wanted to capture the glow of the objets at the sea, so i decided to overexposed the moon, Jupiter and Venus, and get traces of stars. (exp 30 sec)
The line lights you can see on the horizon there are boat lights.
Any questions, i will be happy to answer.
Thanks to APOD for selecting this photograph
And sorry for my bad english...
best regards
Fernando

Fernando --
Thanks for the details. It's a beautiful, warming, image ... it made me imagine life on a planet with multiple moons. This park is actually on an island off the west coat of Spain, correct? Is it only accessible by ship? Your English is quite adequate I'd say.

LUZLUX wrote:Hi, Mi name is Fernando Rey and i´m the author of this photograph.
The image was shot exactly on June 20th 2015 at 23:20:46h...

Fernando,

I was wondering, what time zone is the reported 23:20:46 on June 20th? CET (Central European Time, UT+1) or CEST (Central European Summer Time, UT+2)?

Looking at the scene with SkyTools set for the nearby city of Vigo, Spain (using the coordinates from Wikipedia), and a current time zone of CEST (UT+2) as indicated by several internet time sites, the picture matches SkyTools at 00:20 CEST on June 21st. In particular, the altitude of the moon is much the same as its spacing from Jupiter (4 deg 31 min altitude, 5 deg 15 min spacing). In contrast, at 23:20 CEST on June 20th, the moon was 15 deg 31 min altitude, three times its distance from Jupiter.

Of course, if you're using CET, there's no problem. I have no local knowledge of the area and the park, so perhaps it does not observe summer time for some reason. Or perhaps the time is being taken from the EXIF data and the camera's clock is still on standard time? I come across this with surprising frequency when looking at pictures taken by others. The posted picture does not show the time in the EXIF data (evidently lost in processing).

Finally, looking at the full-size image enlarged, the stars actually appear to be rows of four or five dots, as if the picture is a combination of multiple exposures, but not stacked on the stars. Is this actually the case?

Joe Stieber

sorry for the late reply , but I've been away for a few days...

MarkBour wrote: This park is actually on an island off the west coat of Spain, correct? Is it only accessible by ship?

Yes, the park is composed of a group of islands, all of them only accesible by ship.

Joe Stieber wrote: I was wondering, what time zone is the reported 23:20:46 on June 20th? CET (Central European Time, UT+1) or CEST (Central European Summer Time, UT+2)?
...
Finally, looking at the full-size image enlarged, the stars actually appear to be rows of four or five dots, as if the picture is a combination of multiple exposures, but not stacked on the stars. Is this actually the case?

Yes, we use CET +1 although we are in the western side of the country, and no, is only one shot.

I leave a link to an article with the making of the photograph.
http://www.esolympus.es/triple-conjunction/