Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Moon and Venus, Janssen

If you've been looking up at the sky around sunset you should have noticed a really bright "star" in the sky, just above the horizon.
That's no star, well, it's the star of the sky, it's the planet Venus.
Once in a while, two planetary bodies get sort of close together:



That's the Moon and Venus, taken right after sunset.
When the two bodies get real close, it's called a conjunction.
If they actually pass in front of or in back of each other, it's called a transit.
Or something like that.
Okay, lemme look it up.
Well, my book says a transit is when a planet crosses in front of the Sun(only Venus and Mercury can do this), but I think the term is used loosely to mean when things pass each other.
I've been sort of slacking on the Moon shots recently, mostly because the Moon was rising late/early. Now, it's rising during the day so by the time it's dark, it's fairly low on the horizon.
Anyways, Moon minus ten:



I sort of goofed up here.
I'm not real sure about the orientation of the picture. I un-reversed it, but based on last month's pictures, I think it needs to be rotated a quarter turn counter clockwise.
I forgot to check the real naked eyeball image and by the time I finished loading this up, the Moon was hidden by clouds.
So anyways, if it looks goofy, it's my fault.
Because of the clouds, I was only able to get one shot and it's not that great.
Kind of a bummer for it means I have to wait a month to try again.
By the way, the shot of the Moon and Venus was taken in Honolulu, the Moon shot was taken at The Flat Tire Mission Control Center(FTMCC).
Here's the close up:



For the life of me, I cannot positively identify the two dark areas on the terminator.
They appear to be craters with central peaks, but there isn't anything like that on my map.
Near as I can figure, they are illusions created by the light. The dark area on the right may or may not be a low area surrounded my craters and the dark area on the left may or may not be part of a walled plain called Janssen.
Lemme tell you, the resolution of the image ain't helping.
I'll try to go back and look at other images to see if I can make a positive identification.
Anyways, from here on, I'm just going to be filling the gaps in my Moon images.
Hopefully, I can put together something nice.
Oh, tonights Moon factoid.
Okay, how's this:
It takes 1.5 seconds for Moonlight to hit Earth.
Not exactly seeing the Moon in real time.

5 comments:

John Romeo Alpha said...

Jupiter moons! The Flat Tire Astronomy Club (FTAC) demands Jupiter moon pix! Your regular moon pix are also much loved/treasured by the club members.

limom said...

I think Jupiter is a morning thing right now.
Lemme check and see what time it rises, for Galilean Moons are cool.
On different nights the moons are aligned differently and you can start to track them.

limom said...

Jupiter rises at about 1:30AM, so unless I get up really early, probably not good right now.
Maybe next month.
I will try to get Neptune, which I have never actually seen. No promises though, maybe too much ambient light around here as Neptune is not very bright.

John Romeo Alpha said...

FTAC applauds your efforts at reaching for the stars...or planets. Or icy planetoids. Or something. You never know what they're going to stop calling a planet anymore. Yes, I'm still angry about Pluto.

limom said...

Pluto got robbed!