SkyWatch Friday: Celestial Frownie Face
I just took the following photos moments ago, but think I'm going to have to submit this to SkyWatch Friday!
What happens when you combine Venus, Jupiter, and a sliver of Moon:
You get a Celestial Frownie Face! I was putting nuts out on our apartment window ledge for the nocturnal flying squirrels when I noticed Venus and Jupiter next to the Moon. The Moon was just a sliver and the whole thing looked like an upside down frownie face.
I went outside and as good of photo as I could get with a point and shoot camera, but it didn't turn out too badly. I cropped and rotated it to get that first photo. Perhaps the cause of the frown is too much ambient light interrupting our night sky view in urban areas?
What happens when you combine Venus, Jupiter, and a sliver of Moon:
You get a Celestial Frownie Face! I was putting nuts out on our apartment window ledge for the nocturnal flying squirrels when I noticed Venus and Jupiter next to the Moon. The Moon was just a sliver and the whole thing looked like an upside down frownie face.
I went outside and as good of photo as I could get with a point and shoot camera, but it didn't turn out too badly. I cropped and rotated it to get that first photo. Perhaps the cause of the frown is too much ambient light interrupting our night sky view in urban areas?Labels: skywatch fridays
posted by birdchick at 5:39 PM
28 Comments:
Wow, thanks to the power of Twitter, I got the heads-up from you, and ran out and saw it myself. Now you have these great photos. Bob Collins at MPR is asking for photos over at the NewsCut blog, too.
If you subscribe to the notices sent out by spaceweather.com you can be prepared for these things. Neat stuff!
I saw that earlier tonight and thought about trying to take a photo and turning it upside down and calling it a frownie face but got caught up in other things.
Glad you actually did it.
I am glad you posted these photos. We've had a cluster of overcast, rainy, snowy days (east TN) and I haven't been able to see it yet!
I snapped some photos too but I wasn't real happy with the results. Cold weather+new camera+toddler=poor photos.
You beat Wired to the news about this! :-)
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/12/tonight-planets.html
Hey momo, thanks for the heads up, it made it in and was called Van Gogh-like.
http://tinyurl.com/2gkdz8
Happy to share the photos, hope others get a chance to see it soon.
that was awesome and just to show how blonde i was i looked at the first pic and thought how is it that the planets are above the moon cuz here they're below the moon... i didn't think it would be that different in the central states! thanks for explaining that you flipped the photo! whew!
and totally forgot why i came over here!!! surely you saw the discount owl sale on cuteoverload - laughed so hard!
http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2008/12/crazy-ernies-fa.html
Yay! Thrilled to see this because we couldn't get a good look tonight; it's cloudy here. Hubby really wanted to see it. Thanks. :)
Good Lord, Sharon.
You've got Disapproving SKY now???
: )
I see disapproval where ever I go!
Last night I set up my spotting scope (40x) and my son and I checked out Venus and Jupiter. He was thrilled to see 3 moons of Jupiter! Very cool what you can see with birding optics. I was even able to make out slight banding on Jupiter, which I haven't seen before.
DANG! You birders band EVERYTHING! Andy's saying Jupiter is banded ... hmmm wonder if that gives you banding envy?!!
Here in Australia the moon was the other way around, so it was a Celestial Smiley :)
Wait, wait, wait...the sky was smiling in Australia?? Anyone have a link?
I saw this last night too...I couldn't get a picture of it, so I'm glad someone did. It sure was pretty, and I sure do hate not being able to see stars due to urban lights...
Non Birding Bill found a link to the smiley and as I type this, I think I saw a link to this on Twitter yesterday but didn't realize that's what it was all about.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7759643.stm
As a matter of interest, I asked my amateur-astronomer hubby about the frowny-vs.-smiley issue. He had this to say:
It would be very slightly different by location because of parallax – it should switch from ‘smiley’ to ‘frowny’ at different times depending on where you’re watching from as the Moon is much closer than the planets. Venus and Jupiter would be differing distances apart as well, although not really noticeable to the naked eye.
So there you go! It was actually smiley at one point in Minnesota, too-- just earlier than you took the photo. you can sort of see the change smiley to frowny happening oin the thrid picture of that BBC series you linked. :)
Erm. That last sentence should read "in the third." Not "oin the thrid." :D
The skies cleared out just in time and I got to see and photograph the celestial frowny face too. Now after reading your comments, I'm going to set up my spotting scope on the deck and try to get closer looks at the planets the next time we have clear skies.
"Wow" I love it, thanks for posting that
Such a great shot.
SIGH! Everyone seems to have gotten this shot but me! I just went back to work on Monday and didn't get outside. :( Upside, I now have a reason to sick around til 2052 when it happens again. :)
Thank you for sharing this unusual celestial event. I wanted to see it, but we were overcast that night. I invite you to come see my clouds over Powell Lake in British Columbia. -- Margy
Great shots! I missed this but am glad I can see it through your photographs. Thank you.
Ahh...i knew in advance you were going to be posting these pics for skywatch but i came back to make sure...tee hee..
I have to tell you something funny..I am new to skywatch..only three posts new..and have been enjoying the heck out of it...
But thought it strange when people would comment on my sky post then say "I love SWF" I thought this is very wierd..are they coming on to me...they love Single white female..??? wierd
ha...then i got it..well it took me a few times...LOL...
Good moon photo..does look like a frown!
What I'd love to see are those ((nocturnal flying squirrels!!)) Wow..never heard of them!! I feed the day squirrels...I must look at your profile and see where you are!
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