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:

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

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  2. 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.

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

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