Astronomy alert

[ZenGum]

Just wanted to give you all a "heads up" (so to speak). RFN the waxing crescent moon, Venus and one other planet (not sure which) are all in very close conjunction low in the western sky for an hour or two right after sunset. They almost form a smiley-face shape, and I think it will get better as the moon waxes over the next 12 hours or so, meaning dwellars in other time zones might get a better scene than me. I am still fooling around with my camera but knowing how many photographers there are in the cellar I thought I should share the opportunity.

I'll see if any of my pictures turn out nicely and post any that do.

[Pie]

If I had anything but gray skies overhead, I'd be right there with you...

[SteveDallas]

It's Jupiter. The skyandtelescope.com web site has a pretty decent interactive sky map generator, based on your time and location.

[Scriveyn]

Cloudy over here too. So I had to revert to Stellarium (free) software.

[wolf]

I saw the Venus Jupiter thing the other night. It was pretty cool. Much cooler once I knew what it was.

[glatt]

Just saw it an hour ago. Now it's an upside down frown face.

[ZenGum]

Woefully late, but here are the snaps I took.

I gotta say to you merkins ... turn that frown, upside-down!

[Urbane Guerrilla]

I got a look at it too. Zen, it has to do with where you are on the globe, since the moon is in comparatively close and that makes a difference.

Like discovering Orion is standing on his head from the Southern Hemisphere. In the Northern, he's the big K for Kellogg's in the winter sky.

[ZenGum]

I think the cause was, by the time the Earth had spun for you guys to see it, the moon had advanced on its path until it was past Venus. And maybe the perspective thing was involved as well.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

It was; the Northern Hemisphere view of the conjunction looked like Glatt's pics.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

It was; the Northern Hemisphere view of the conjunction looked like Glatt's pics.

Yes, a day later, when the sky was clear of clouds again and after the moon had moved 1/28th of the way around the Earth and was no longer in the same position.

Theoretically, there will be a slightly different perspective of the moon from different hemispheres, but as you can see from the image below, the moon is so small and so far away, in practice, you need fine instrumentation to see the difference. You won't notice a difference with a simple camera or the naked eye. It would be like moving over one seat in a rock concert to see a different view of the singer on the stage. The view doesn't really change that much.

[lumberjim]

http://io9.com/5715413/tonight-will-...past-500-years

The Earth's shadow will begin to blot out the moon at 1:32 a.m. EST (10:32 p.m. PST). During totality, when the Earth is directly between the moon and the sun, the moon will turn a rusty orange-red for 72 minutes from 2:41 a.m. to 3:53 a.m. EST (11:41 p.m. to 12:53 a.m. PST).