A pretty shoddy first attempt at a Scilly Stars video.
Fellini it's not!
The Moon Occulting The Pleides Cluster
Mercury 45 minutes before sunrise
Conjunction of Jupiter and Venus on the 16th Feb at Sunset.Firstly this week I’ve have to make a correction, because last week I made myself a bit of a laughing stock. If you recall I said that Mars was in Opposition, which it was on Friday, but I also said that it would be easy to spot, which it was, because it would be where the sun was 12 hours ago, which is a pack of lies. What I should have was it would be where the sun was 12 hours earlier on July 31st in pretty well any year you want. Because unforgivably I forgot that that the earth’s axis is sloped toward the night sky during the autumn and winter months. Which is why the planets always take a higher path across the sky during the winter months.
Anyway Mars is still there and very bright it rises in the e north e around 5, where the sun will rise at the end of July as I just painstakingly told you. By 10pm it will be almost due south as Saturn rises due East. And Mars is still retrograde against the stars, which moves it appears to be moving east instead of west which means according to the laws of toffee that it’s a bad time to be assertive. Here’s Belinda to take you into the Twilight zone
It seems that When Mars is in its retrograde cycle, we are forced to re-assess our current projects, our approach to getting what we want, and our desire nature. Rather than directly asserting our desires, we tend towards introspection. While Mars in direct motion is direct, straightforward, assertive, and aggressive, with Mars in retrograde motion, Mars energy is essentially turned inward--it's internalized, intensified, personalized, and perhaps pressurized. We can be hesitant about taking action, second-guessing our instincts or our natural impulses rather than acting upon them. The way we react to situations under normal conditions doesn't necessarily work for us now, or we don't exactly trust it.
And that’s why you feel more like Norman Wisdom than Charles Bronson, at the moment!
February has a couple of very nice high points. Venus is back for a star. And on the 16th there’s a conjunction of Venus and Jupiter. Given a low south-western horizon and a clear night you will have a chance to see a close conjunction of the two brightest planets at about 6 pm, just after sunset. Jupiter is moving towards the Sun, so getting lower in the sky whilst Venus is moving away so getting higher in the sky. Their closest approach is on the 16th February when they are just 4 degrees above the horizon with a very thin crescent Moon hanging in the sky above. This should be a lovely sight, so let’s hope that it is clear. Porth Looe will be a good viewing point for those of us unfortunate enough to live on St Mary’s.
On the 21st at 18:50 The Moon occults some of the stars in the Pleiades Cluster. The first quarter Moon at will occult the very pretty arc of stars that extends down to the left of the Pleiades Cluster. As the leading limb of is in darkness, it will be nice to see the stars disappear from sight without an obvious cause. More about that in two weeks.
And as you know this the international year of Astronomy and to celebrate a team of British astronomers have made the largest lunar image in history and gained a place in the Guinness Book of Records! The image comprises 87.4 mega pixels with a Moon diameter of 9550 pixels. This show details as small as 1km across. It works a little like Google Earth.
That was night sky for the week ending on the 65th anniversary of the first deployment of US combat troops in Vietnam. Life was so much simpler then.
Anyway Mars is still there and very bright it rises in the e north e around 5, where the sun will rise at the end of July as I just painstakingly told you. By 10pm it will be almost due south as Saturn rises due East. And Mars is still retrograde against the stars, which moves it appears to be moving east instead of west which means according to the laws of toffee that it’s a bad time to be assertive. Here’s Belinda to take you into the Twilight zone
It seems that When Mars is in its retrograde cycle, we are forced to re-assess our current projects, our approach to getting what we want, and our desire nature. Rather than directly asserting our desires, we tend towards introspection. While Mars in direct motion is direct, straightforward, assertive, and aggressive, with Mars in retrograde motion, Mars energy is essentially turned inward--it's internalized, intensified, personalized, and perhaps pressurized. We can be hesitant about taking action, second-guessing our instincts or our natural impulses rather than acting upon them. The way we react to situations under normal conditions doesn't necessarily work for us now, or we don't exactly trust it.
And that’s why you feel more like Norman Wisdom than Charles Bronson, at the moment!
February has a couple of very nice high points. Venus is back for a star. And on the 16th there’s a conjunction of Venus and Jupiter. Given a low south-western horizon and a clear night you will have a chance to see a close conjunction of the two brightest planets at about 6 pm, just after sunset. Jupiter is moving towards the Sun, so getting lower in the sky whilst Venus is moving away so getting higher in the sky. Their closest approach is on the 16th February when they are just 4 degrees above the horizon with a very thin crescent Moon hanging in the sky above. This should be a lovely sight, so let’s hope that it is clear. Porth Looe will be a good viewing point for those of us unfortunate enough to live on St Mary’s.
On the 21st at 18:50 The Moon occults some of the stars in the Pleiades Cluster. The first quarter Moon at will occult the very pretty arc of stars that extends down to the left of the Pleiades Cluster. As the leading limb of is in darkness, it will be nice to see the stars disappear from sight without an obvious cause. More about that in two weeks.
And as you know this the international year of Astronomy and to celebrate a team of British astronomers have made the largest lunar image in history and gained a place in the Guinness Book of Records! The image comprises 87.4 mega pixels with a Moon diameter of 9550 pixels. This show details as small as 1km across. It works a little like Google Earth.
That was night sky for the week ending on the 65th anniversary of the first deployment of US combat troops in Vietnam. Life was so much simpler then.
No comments:
Post a Comment