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Venus, Jupiter and the moon align this weekend

by reno_fog | November 30, 2008 at 10:12 pm

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The striking photo to the left was taken in southern California... my own meager attempt is below.
When seen from Reno, Nevada the sight was breathtaking. As the sun went down , there in the west was this beautiful alignment.
This event can be seen in the Northern Hemisphere in North America on December 1, as well.

Venus, Jupiter and the moon align this weekend

After Thanksgiving, you may be so stuffed you can do nothing by sit and stare up at the sky.

Well that’s the perfect position to take when Venus, Jupiter and a crescent moon line up in the southwestern sky just after sunset on Nov. 30th and Dec. 1st.

No need for a telescope. The Moon and the two planets will be visible to the unaided eye and easily distinguishable from the stars in the distance.

“They will be the brightest things in the sky,” said Anthony Cook, astronomical observer at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.

The three celestial objects pass each other once a year but rarely do they appear this clearly, he said.

“It’s striking,” Cook added.

Here’s the scoop: Look to the southwest, about 17 degrees above the horizon, between 6 and 7:30 p.m. on either night.

On Nov. 30, the crescent moon will be just below the two planets. Venus will be the brightest of the two and Jupiter will have a slight yellow tinge. On Dec. 1, the moon will be just above the two planets.

To see photos of similar alignments from the past, check out the NASA Images website.

Cook doesn’t recommend looking through a telescope because you won’t be able to get all three objects in one field. Instead, he suggests using less-powerful binoculars to see some detail without isolating any of the orbs.

Although the moon and the planes will look close in the sky, they are actually millions of miles apart. The moon is 240,000 miles away; Venus is 93 million miles away and Jupiter is a scant 539 million miles from earth.