Saturn, moon and star offer triple night sky treat Thursday

[Doomsday101]

Look toward the southeast on Thursday night (May 3) about an hour after sunset, and you will behold a rare and beautiful sight, a triple conjunction of the moon, the planet Saturn, and the bright star Spica.

A conjunction occurs when two or more astronomical objects are close together in the sky. In reality they are far apart in space; their closeness is just an effect of perspective. In astrology such close encounters are supposed to cause serious effects, but astronomers know that conjunctions are nothing more than a beautiful sight and a photo opportunity.

Because Saturn is the farthest planet from the sun visible to the naked eye, its movements in our sky are very slow. It has been in the constellation Virgo, close to Spica, for a couple of years now. The moon, on the other hand, is very close to Earth, so appears to move relatively quickly across the sky.



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012...treat-thursday/?intcmp=features#ixzz1tq5zHbZ0

 

[vta]

New Jersey hates astronomy. It's always overcast when these things happen. :/

 

[Rynie]

Sweet! I might get on top of my roof with my google sky map and check it out. At times like this, I REALLY wish I lived in the country, without the light pollution.

 

[Cajuncowboy]

Thanks for the heads up. I will be checking it out.

 

[Ren]

and of course it's raining here so i can't see anything

 

[JonJon]

Will most definitely catch this tonight

 

[YosemiteSam]

I get to catch rain drops. :laugh1:

 

[cowboy_ron]

New Jersey hates astronomy. It's always overcast when these things happen. :/

:laugh1:

 

[YosemiteSam]

New Jersey hates astronomy. It's always overcast when these things happen. :/

New Jersey you say? That's not overcast. That's pollution. :laugh2:

As a side note, Venus, Jupiter, and the moon were right on top of each other about a month or so ago. That was a better site as they are all quite a bit brighter than Spica.