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Friday, December 5, 2008

12.05- Celestial alignment - Skywatch Friday


The Moon, Venus and Jupiter in alignment

My "Skywatch Friday" photo this week comes from the night of December 1, 2008.

The waxing crescent Moon flew past Venus and Jupiter tonight (in the picture, Venus and Jupiter are seen through the tree... Venus is the second brightest object in the sky, with Jupiter the third)

This is apparently an astronomical rarity.

The steeple in the foreground belongs to the new Bethany Christian Church in the nearby burg of Arapahoe, NC.

The new church replaces one that burned down on June 25 of 2007.

You can see the story of Bethany Church's corporeal destruction and inspiring rebirth at their blog site.

I had a hard time balancing between the very bright moon and the relatively dimmer (but still bright to the naked eye) Venus and Jupiter... Some pictures showed the moon better, more like the crisp crescent it was, but Venus and Jupiter were just too dim in those shots. I picked this picture because the planets show up well, even though the moon as a consequence is overexposed.

It was an awesome sight, particularly out in the country away from the few towns around here.
HAPPY SWF EVERYONE!
I look forward to seeing the other Skywatch pictures from around the world on the other SWF sites listed at:


-30-

5 comments:

DeniseinVA said...

This is a wonderful photograph, beautifully composed. Great shot!

Anonymous said...

Great shot. A special astronomic phenomenon.
I got it here in Brazil too.

Linda Jacobs said...

I tried to take a picture of this awesome sight but it didn't come out very good. Yours is great! I know I need a better camera.

Guy D said...

Wow you captured it perfectly, thanks for sharing.

Cheers!
Regina In Pictures

Pearl Maple said...

Cool photo for Sky Watch Fridy, all kinds of interesting things going on in the sky lately. That alignment sitting next to the spire sure is different, thanks for sharing with us all in Sky Watch Friday.