Monday, August 13, 2012

The Occultation of Venus

There was an interesting astronomical event late in the afternoon today. The Moon was going to cover up the planet Venus at about 4:40 PM just before the Moon set. A friend from the astronomy club and I set up in Memorial Park in town - it is up high on the cliff, and overlooks Hempstead Harbor and Long Island Sound. We set up a telescope and looked through binoculars, but there were clouds all the way to the horizon so we didn't see a thing, unfortunately. I was COUNTING on taking a photo of the Moon just about to cover Venus for the blog, so when we didn't see that I was at a loss. So I came home, and around sunset I saw this one cloud illuminated by the setting sun. So you get a pink cloud, instead of the Moon and Venus.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry you did not get to view the moon covering venus, but this is a beautiful photo.
Joan

Anonymous said...

Cotton candy in the sky. Pink clouds don't happen every day. Maybe they only happen when many more girls than boys are born; or when there are more happy people than sad people. Sure, there's a scientific reason for these pink fluffs of air, but I'd rather just delight in their existence; enjoy them when they appear. Who knows when they'll visit again? Maybe when many more girls than boys are born.

Ken Spencer said...

I'll take whatever it is that makes pink clouds, because they are so beautiful, and relatively rare.