If you live in the eastern U.S. or Canada, go outside right now and look to the west.
Purty, ain’t it?
I don’t usually indulge in breathless, guess-what-just-happened blog posts, but this was too good to miss. I’m sure it’s all over Twitter.
UPDATE: And you want to know why I don’t? I just mispelled “conjunction.” In the title of the post. (See the permalink URL if you don’t believe me.)
Lovely, but it’s nice out west as well.
Isn’t that Jupiter? I hope so, because two nights ago in Las Vegas I said so to the smart 6-year old nephew who believes everything I say.
No, that’s Venus. Depending on where in the world you were when it got dark, the apparent distance between them was somewhere between three degrees and less than one degree (projecting the arc of a circle onto the dome of the sky). Such a close conjunction is quite uncommon. I’m sure Muslims, in particular, were thrilled.
It was raining here, alas. Nice photo – thanks for posting it. I’m sure astrologers were thrilled, too. ;-)
I photographed that too, except the sky was still light here in the pacific northwest. So the moon and venus can be seen in a blue sky. Quite a pretty sight.
leslee – I’m sorry you didn’t get to see it, and I’m surprised our weather was so different.
I believe the Muslim symbol of the star and crescent has its roots in ancient Babylonia, the birthplace of Western astrology. Venus was associated with the goddess, and the crescent moon with the horns of the sacrificial bull. You probably knew that.
robin andrea – Sounds lovely!
Venus, I knew. Not about the crescent moon. Picasso would have loved their conjunction. :-)
Raining here too, so your fantastic photo is much appreciated. I also like the reminders about the roots of the Muslim symbol.