Planet Scenes February 2023
|
|
February 28 On the last day of February, we were treated to a nice view of the brightest planets about a degree apart in a clear, moonlit sky. |
||
|
|
February 26 Only three more days before the conjunction ~ let's hope our skies on March 1 are at least as good as they are this evening! |
||
|
|
|
February 23 The Moon has moved well up beyond Jupiter but we still have a nice lineup to contemplate for one more evening before we re-focus on the impending conjunction. |
|
|
February 22 Although it was cloudy here in central Virginia, a friend emailed me his picture of the close gathering of the Moon and Jupiter, plus Venus below them, from his retirement home in Wilmington, North Carolina. This must have been taken in the early twilight to still see the vibrant blue and pink colors. Thanks, Mike!! You have a job as a contributing sky imager for starvergnuegen whenever you want it LOL! |
|||
|
|
|
|
February 21 This is the first evening of a series of beautiful trios created as the Moon sails by the pair of bright planets up the vault of the heavens. We have an early twilight scene, a much later view with stars visible, and a telephoto view of the Moon near the Pisces / Aquarius / Cetus border. |
|
February 19 Venus continues to narrow the gap with Jupiter, which has now just barely edged back into Pisces. The Jupiter opposition later this year will occur in October among the eastern environs of Pisces. The circumstances of this conjunction involving the two brightest planets mirrors the 1999 event, as shown in this image from February 18, 1999 taken in Serbia. |
|||
|
February 17 On a cold and blustery evening, we see Venus continue to close in on Jupiter, having now moved well into Pisces after passing Neptune two days ago, while Jupiter is struggling to finally complete his passage through the corner of Cetus the whale and get back into a proper zodiacal constellation. |
|||
|
February 13 Venus continues to close in on Jupiter, or is it the other way around? From the perspective of an observer each evening at the same time after sunset, Jupiter appears to be falling rapidly down to meet Venus; from the perspective of the planets against the starry background, Venus is rushing headlong to overtake slower Jupiter! |
|||
|
February 8 Our evening skies were not great, but incredibly warm and decent enough to record a view of the rapidly closing pair of Venus and Jupiter. This image was obtained with the same 35mm lens as the one below, on February 3. |
|||
|
February 6 Despite the just-past-full-Moon, we were treated to a nice view of Mercury rising over the Rappahannock River without the scene being spoiled by the moonlight. Here, Mercury can be seen in eastern Sagittarius, well to the left of the Teapot asterism and below-left of the Teaspoon. |
|||
|
February 3 After several days of clouds and precipitation, we finally had a beautifully clear, but cold evening, so we were able to catch Venus and Jupiter together for the first time, although I had to use a 35 mm moderately wide-angle lens to do so. Saturn has sunk out of sight now, so all the focus is on the impending conjunction of Venus and Jupiter. |
|||
