At least with this sport, Mario had some experience before launching himself completely into a full game of it. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmers' Almanac and other publications. Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. Astronomical amnesia allows us to forget the last time we saw them assembling for such a performance.Īnd we also usually fail to recall that none of the influential magical thinking attributed to the previous event ever materialized. The only problem with this theory is that the planets in the night sky are always shifting in and out of celestial liaisons. Indeed, even to this day, there are those who firmly believe that the changing positions of the sun, moon and planets can have a decided effect on the destinies of individuals and nations on Earth. The skywatchers of thousands of years ago must have deduced that if the movements of the planets had any significance at all, it must be to inform those who could read celestial signs of what the fates held in store. And evidence that the planets came to be associated with the gods, lies in their very names, which represent ancient deities. This ability to move seemed to have an almost magical, God-like quality. Twelve of the constellations through which the ecliptic passes form the zodiac their names which can be readily identified on standard star charts are familiar to millions of horoscope users who would be hard-pressed to find them in the actual sky.Īncient man probably took note of the fact that the planets - themselves resembling bright stars - had the freedom to wander in the heavens, while the other 'fixed' stars remained rooted in their positions. But since the moon and planets move in orbits, whose planes do not differ greatly from that of the Earth's orbit, these bodies, when visible in our sky, always stay relatively close to the ecliptic line.
Technically, the ecliptic represents the extension or projection of the plane of the Earth's orbit out towards the sky. The ecliptic is also the apparent path that the sun appears to take through the sky as a result of the Earth's revolution around it. Venus and Jupiter are seen close together near the horizon towards the end of April (Image credit: Stellarium)Īll of the naked-eye planets, and the moon as well, closely follow an imaginary line in the sky called the ecliptic. By that time Jupiter will be on the other side of the sky, dominating the evening views. Venus will continue to hug the edge of dawn low in the east until August, then will slowly sink into the sunrise. In the months to come, these two brightest planets will go in very different ways. On May 1, the two planets are still strikingly close, separated by 0.6 degrees and this will increase by almost a degree per day, so that by May 8, Jupiter shines 7.1 degrees to Venus' upper right. The denouement following April 30 is swift. A similarly striking pairing of these two planets will occur in the evening sky on March 1, 2023. This is the closest Venus-Jupiter conjunction since August 2016, when they were deeper in the glow of the sun. The Far East sees them near their moments of conjunction and appulse (closest approach) when Venus passes just 0.25 degrees north of Jupiter. Jupiter will appear round, three of its four Galilean satellites will be visible and Venus will look slightly more than half-lit. On April 30, Venus and Jupiter stand side-by-side, separated by 0.45 degrees for North America and visible together in a telescope's low-to-medium power view. Venus and Jupiter are separated by 3.2 degrees that morning, 2 degrees on April 28, and 1.3 degrees on the April 29. In a single glance, you'll see the three brightest objects in the night sky: a 12% illuminated crescent moon, Jupiter 4 degrees to its upper left and Venus hovering 5 degrees directly above the lunar sliver. Make sure you have a wide-open view of the east-southeast horizon that morning with no obstructions and set your alarm clock for 5:15 a.m.
Meanwhile, the crescent moon looms, passing below Saturn on April 25, Mars on April 26 and finally Jupiter and Venus on April 27. The main event comes during the final week of April with the approach of magnitude -2 Jupiter to magnitude -4 Venus, seven times brighter.
Towards the end of April the moon scuds along below the planets.
0 kommentar(er)
