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Nashville Four Planet Skylin
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| Title |
Nashville Four Planet Skyline |
| Explanation |
So far this February, evening skies [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000504.html ] have been blessed with a glorious Moon and three bright planets, Venus [ http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/ longfe10.html ], Jupiter, and Saturn. But just last week, on January 30th, an extreme wide-angle lens allowed astrophotographer Larry Koehn to capture this twilight view of Moon and four planets above [ http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/ see.html ] Nashville, Tennessee, USA. These major solar system [ http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/ ] bodies lie along the ecliptic plane [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001014.html ] and so follow a diagonal line through the picture. Starting near the upper left corner is bright Jupiter [ http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/ solar_system_level2/jupiter.html ], which takes on a slightly triangular shape due to the lens distortion. Just below and right of Jupiter is Saturn [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/english/kids/ saturn_in_sky.html ]. Continuing along the diagonal toward the lower right is an overexposed, six day old Moon [ http://www.inconstantmoon.com/ ] and brilliant Venus seemingly embedded in clouds. The fourth planet pictured is Mercury. Notoriously hard to see from planet Earth because it never wanders far from the Sun, Mercury is [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991111.html ] visible just above the lower right corner. The line from Jupiter to Mercury spans about 92 degrees across the Nashville sky. |
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Moon, Mars, Venus, and Spica
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Moon, Mars, Venus, and Spica |
| Explanation |
Gliding toward today's total eclipse [ http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/ eclipse/TSE2002/TSE2002.html ] of the Sun, the crescent Moon has been rising early, just before dawn. And as a prelude to its close solar alignment [ http://www.mreclipse.com/ Special/SEprimer.html ], the Moon also completed a lovely celestial triangle, closing with bright planets Mars and Venus [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020524.html ] on the morning of December 1. While [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021203.html ] the total solar eclipse can only [ http://profjohn.com/el/el2002/index.html ] be seen [ http://www.csiro.au/helix/eclipse/ ] from a [ http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/solar_eclipse_2002/ ] narrow corridor, skygazers around the globe could appreciate this [ http://www.spaceweather.com/planets/ gallery_01dec02.html ] lunar-planetary conjunction. This view is from near Nashville Tennessee, USA, and finds brilliant Venus at the lowest corner of the triangle with a much fainter Mars immediately to the right of the Moon. The Moon's sunlit crescent is overexposed, but details of the lunar night side are revealed by earthshine [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020419.html ]. Above and to the right of the trio is Spica [ http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/ hr/5056.html ], brightest star in the constellation Virgo. |
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