With Jupiter and Saturn still close enough to pose as a joint “Star of Bethlehem.”
Category: astronomy
The conjoint star
You might think that crane had pulled it into view.
Last-minute to the Great Conjunction
We’re going out in minutes to see if we can see anything across the meadow in Syon Park and a distant line of trees, but look again at Continue reading “Last-minute to the Great Conjunction”
The Great Conjunction
is upon us. It’s to be seen in its glory (if weather and the rather low attitude in the sky allow) on the evenings of Sunday Dec. 20 and Monday Dec. 21. Those are just before, and just after, the very closest approach of Jupiter to Saturn. That happens in the daytime between, but on either evening the planets fit into a very small field of view.
I have worked up a full story about this. Please click Continue reading “The Great Conjunction”
Of Frogs and Stars
The limerick’s less than idyllic
And yet there are rules to this lyric.
It needs at all times
Three ridiculous rhymes
And a meter quite smoothly dactylic. Continue reading “Of Frogs and Stars”
Astrolimerick of the day
Observing the planet called Saturn,
You see a remarkable pattern.
At first it appears
Like a head with two ears
But the pattern is flatter’n that ‘un. Continue reading “Astrolimerick of the day”
More on the eclipse
If you hurry to Chile right soon
You’ll see the Sun blocked by the Moon.
The right time and place
Are the keys to the chase
Of the drama of darkness at noon.
Eclipse across the Andes (and Washington)
The Moon wields a wand: the long slender shadow called the umbra, which when it touches Earth creates a magic show. The wand will sweep across South America on December 14.
Continue reading “Eclipse across the Andes (and Washington)”
Meteor and metaphor
The annual Geminid meteor shower may be already strong in the night of December 13/14 Continue reading “Meteor and metaphor”
High-powered view
Jupiter and Saturn, as shown in Continue reading “High-powered view”