There has been a spectacular sight in the southwestern sky for the last few weeks, when the sky is clear. It is best seen at about 6:15 PM or so, but you can see it an hour earlier or an hour later. Jupiter and Venus are both visible, and when the sky is clear and the sun has set, both of them are blazing, brighter than diamonds, in the deep blue sky. The planets are very tiny specks in this photograph, so please click on the image to see a larger sized image. And I hope you can all get out and see this for yourself. Make sure you are not in the vicinity of street lights, because they brighten the sky, and take away some of the apparent brightness of the planets.
3 comments:
Hi Ken-
Very nice! Though I didn't spot it in your photo, the planet Uranus was in the same telescopic field of view as Venus and was quite spectacular at Kitt Peak with the 16". Stretch it a bit and see if you can get all 4 planets in the image (including earth!).
-Dean
this photo captures the blue that makes my mind scream with delight. i'm not a fan of astronomy, but when i see a blue sky such as this one, it fills me up and makes me feel so good. i get the same feeling when i see a body of water with the rich blues and blue-greens, or intense aquas of waters around the islands. you can't get that kind of rush from the blues that are manufactured. designers may try to capture the same hue in clothing, pottery, glass - but nothing compares to what nature can create. i may return to this picture over and over again, just for the blue sky. thank you, ken.
Thank you both for your comments. I did know that Uranus was in the same field with Venus, but didn't get my 10" scope out to look for it. Bad Ken. And I do know the emotional power of those deep blues. I photographed Jupiter and Venus for about half an hour, and the sky brightness was constantly changing. Finally the perfect deep blue arrived.
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