Many of you have noticed the bright "Evening Stars" in the western sky, and many of you know that these 'stars' are actually the planets Jupiter and Venus. Jupiter has been tracking westward during the winter, and now Venus is rising up to meet it. Of course, these motions are only our perception from a planet that itself is moving. Jupiter is orbiting the Sun and slowly moves eastward compared to the background of stars, but Earth orbits faster so it falls behind. Venus, closer to the Sun, orbits faster so it is catching up to the Earth, getting closer and brighter. Over the next month, the apparent distance between them will decrease until they are just a couple of degrees apart.
During our Globe at Night LiveChat I mentioned this planetary meeting and asked students to try their hand at taking photographs of it. I asked them to experiment and see what they could do with ordinary digital cameras and smartphones. I received these two images from Abdiel Santos-Galindo from Puerto Rico. He used his iPhone to capture and send his pictures.
The first picture, taken from Fort Buchanan on Friday, February 24. You can see Jupiter, Venus, and the crescent Moon just above the roof top.
The second picture was taken the following night from the airport in Aguadilla where there was little to no light to dim the night sky. The Moon has moved to make a triangle with the two distant planets.
How about you? Why not try your hand at astro-photography and take pictures of the night sky with your camera or phone? You can post them on the Discussion Board in the thread linked below. If they are good, you may see them on the INSPIRE Blog!
Discuss this blog here: http://tinyurl.com/bloginspire
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