| AURORA ALERT:
Did you sleep through the northern lights? Next time get a
wake-up call: Spaceweather
PHONE.
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AURORA WATCH:
A solar wind stream is heading for Earth and it could cause geomagnetic
storms when it arrives late on Dec. 30th or 31st. High-latitude
sky watchers should be alert
for auroras.
SUNSET PLANETS:
When the sun goes down tonight, step outside and look southwest.
That bright light high in the sky is Venus. From there, trace a
line down into the sunset. Along the way you'll run into the crescent
Moon, Jupiter and Mercury:
Photo details:
Canon EOS 5D, ISO 800, 200 mm f/1.8 lens, 1.6s
"I took this picture tonight from the countryside near Tavas,
Turkey," says photographer Tunç Tezel. "The triplet reminded
me of the Great
Conjunction of December 1st. But in this case the low-hanging
trio had even nicer twilight colors."
The Moon is en route to Venus for a spectacular conjunction on
Dec. 31st. On New Year's Eve, the two brightest objects in the night
sky will shine through city lights and even fireworks--so everyone
can enjoy the show. It's a nice way to end the year. Sky
maps: Dec.
29, 30, 31.
more photos: from
Piotr Majewski of Torun, Poland; from
Tamas Ladanyi of Tes, Hungary; from
Peter and John Stetson of Portland, Maine; from
Günther Strauch of Borken, NRW, Germany; from
Scott Calvin of San Francisco, California; from
Pete Glastonbury of Devizes, Wiltshire, UK; from
Gonzalo Vargas of Cochabamba, Bolivia; from
Mohammad Soltanolkottabi of Kashan, Iran; from
Mustafa Erol of Antalya, Turkey; from
Koshu Endo of Kanagawa, Japan; from
Masa Nakamura of Otawara, Tochigi, Japan;
from
Rick Ulrich of Springdale, Arkansas; from
Ginger Mayfield of Divide, Colorado; from
Doug Zubenel of Wabaunsee County, Kansas;
SHADOWS OF VENUS:
The legend is true. Venus is bright enough
to cast shadows. The silhouette on this white screen is framed by
the light of the Goddess of Love:
Play the movie: 3
MB Quicktime
French photographer Laurent
Laveder took the picture and here he explains how it was done:
"On Christmas evening, I went to the beach to capture the inconspicuous
shadows cast by Venus. I positioned my camera (a Canon
40D) between Venus and the screen and then I made several 30
second exposures at 1600 ISO with a Sigma 30mm lens open at 1.4.
The camera's shadow showed up quite nicely."
Stitching together consecutive exposures, Laveder created a must-see
movie. It shows the shadow moving up as Venus descends into
the waves behind the camera.
Readers, now is the time to catch your own Venus shadow. The crescent
Moon sets just after the sun, so the only light in dark places belongs
to Venus herself. Give it a try.
Dec.
2008 Nacreous Cloud Gallery
[January 2008 Gallery]
[Nacreous
tutorial]
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