December 1, 2008
Venus, Jupiter, Crescent Moon Meet in the Sky Tonight
We mentioned last week that the two brightest planets in our sky would soon converge together with the crescent Moon in the early evening, making their final swoop towards each other tonight. Flickr user (and our reliable astro-photographer) philliefan99 took this image on Saturday night, when they were still fairly far apart, but knowing the rain would make it tough to photograph on Sunday. We're looking at partly to very cloudy skies tonight, but try to scope them out anyway. If it's clear, the three will be visible just after sunset -- as you can tell from the photo above -- so look up while you're leaving the office today. Venus, Jupiter and the Moon will be huddled in the southwestern sky near the horizon and will be so close that you can cover all three with your thumb at arms length. Enjoy the show!
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Heh, I actually brought my camera and tripod to work with me today as to get some good shots. Hopefully the weather will be decent. I'm planning to walk the 2 blocks to the White House after work and try to use that in the foreground.
Try to check out the convergence earlier rather than later, because it will disappear below the horizon around 7pm.
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Perfect view right now!
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beautiful view out there!
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I just went outside and didn't see a damn thing. Did I miss it, or is it just overcast?
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I had a great view at the corner of 22nd and P, really beautiful.
HCE -- If you went after 7, 7:30 or so, as eisenhut said above, it was probably below the horizon already. I saw it at 6 and it was already pretty low, but it was clear as day. It was also hard to see if you were downtown or near a lot of tall buildings -- I couldn't see it till I got 5-6 blocks away from my office in Farragut.
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I followed the three down to the horizon just before 8, interrupted for a time by stubborn clouds. Worth freezing my ass off.
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Went to the Washington Monument around dusk to photograph it. Upside is that the sightlines are clear because there aren't any tall buildings in the area. Downside is that the lack of buildings means you will feel the wind, and it was windy. But definitely worth it. I wasn't waiting until 2052!
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Yeah it was a bit windy and chilly last night. I never seem to notice the cold when I'm shooting photos, though. One of these days I'm going to come in from a long photo session with frostbite.
Last night I probably had ten people tell me what a great photo op it was.
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I recorded a timelapse video of conjunction.
Click here to watch the video
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I was wondering what planets were. I saw them in the early evening with a pretty clear sky at the top of the hill on Walter Reed Drive just before Four Mile Run. Was a really cool site!