I stepped out in our backyard yesterday evening to check the sky, considering a possible urban astronomy session, and was surprised to find a beautiful waxing crescent moon visible through the western trees. The new moon was only a few days ago.
I took a snapshot and am pleased with the result. Mare Crisium and the prominent crater, Cleomedes, can be seen in the image.
I did break out one of my scopes later in the evening and observed from 10 until about 1:30 in the morning, logging some challenging planetary nebulae in Aquila and Cygnus. I'm pondering whether to start a blog devoted to astronomy observations.
7 comments:
Hey Fiske,
Also saw the crescent and thought about getting the scope out. Alas I was busy with Ethan stuff so we never got the chance to do it. Were there 2 planets by this crescent? I thought maybe one of them was Mars but wasn't sure what the other one was. Hope you are having a good day today. David
Kind of curious but your posting clock is off by about 2 hours...
David: Yeah. There might be some time setting I can change on my blogger dashboard. I'll look at that. Jupiter would be near the moon now, but it wasn't on the evening I took this picture Mars does not rise until the early morning, so it would not be near the moon at present.
Hi Fiske,
Now I am curious as to what the 2 bright lights were by the crescent moon either on the 15th or 16th. I thought for sure they were planets because it was just after twilight and none of the stars could be seen (not easily anyway). One of the lights was almost directly below the bottom point of the crescent and looked kind of orange in color hence the reason why I thought it was Mars. The other light was much brighter but a little further away from the top of the crescent. Some of the websites I have found have indicated that both Mercury and Jupiter would have been close to the moon in that timeframe so maybe I saw these. However, I am doubtful of that because I am sure that would have been a major viewing event. I will have to dig out the telescope next time and try a little harder.
David
David: Go to Vern's Astronomy Weblog (see my links list). He has planet/lunar activity on a weekly basis. Also, most of the major planetariums list planetary and lunar info and other stuff too. I think I have a 2007 RASC handbook, I'll look in that to see what it says. Jupiter is probably one of the two objects. Mercury wouldn't look orange, so it might have been a brighter star. I'll let you know what I come up with.
Fiske
Hi Fiske,
Well after looking at Vern's link, it does appear that Jupiter has to be be one of them. Vern said the best time to see Jupiter in this timeframe was the early twilight just after the sun sets which is when I saw these. The other one is a mystery though. I'm not sure which one is which either. The fainter more colorful one was closer to the moon. My guess is Jupiter must have been the brighter one.
Vern talks about Mercury being in the twilight sky also but not sure if we could see it from where we are.
Gotta go. Talk to you soon Bro.
David
David:
It was most likely a star. Mercury would have been much closer to the horizon, and pretty hard to see would be my guess. The RASC handbook didn't list anything particular for this date, and they certainly would have had an entry for two planets close to the crescent moon.
Fiske
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