Venus and Jupiter Conjunction

We could see both Venus and Jupiter tonight with the naked eye, but they are quite close together. The photo on the right shows about how the planets looked visually from our back yard.

The bottom photo is through a telescope. Venus is to the upper right in both photos and Jupiter is to the lower left.




Jupiter's four main moons are lined up nicely to the upper left of Jupiter. The one waaaay to the upper left of Jupiter is Callisto. Europa (L) and Ganymede (R) are side by side much closer to Jupiter. And last but not least, Io is the one closest to Jupiter.

Planet Parade This Weekend

Venus and Jupiter are getting close together in the evening sky. Check them out Friday evening a little after sunset. Look again Saturday evening and try to see if you can spot both planets without the aid of binoculars! They should be super close together on Saturday evening.

This picture is a screen shot from Stellarium software and shows what you should see in the west on Friday evening shortly after sunset.

The picture below is the Scorpius region of the sky as seen from Spelonk last night. Mars has noticeably moved more to the left of that imaginary line between Antares and Saturn.

Mars Moved, Whoo Whoo!

 
 
Mars moved between last night and tonight!   Last night, Mars was just to the right of an imaginary line drawn between Antares and Saturn. Tonight Mars is just to the left of said imaginary line.

The shot to the right is from last night's session at Coco Beach (where Hotel Bonaire used to be.)

The shot below is from tonight, as seen from our back yard in Hato.


You'll probably need to look at the larger versions to see my labels.

Mars and Saturn in Scorpius

Mars and Saturn are close together near the head of Scorpius.

Antares, Mars, and Saturn made an almost straight line tonight, and will do so again tomorrow night.

Here is a shot from the beach across the street from the TWR offices, by the traffic circle in Hato.

Venus, Mercury and Jupiter

Venus, Mercury and Jupiter are pretty close together in the evening sky right now.

Venus is to the lower right. Jupiter is in the middle, and Mercury is to the left.

On Saturday, Aug. 27, Venus and Jupiter might be so close together that you'll need binoculars to tell them apart. That sounds like fun. I hope we have clear skies.

Starry Nights

 
 
We had some very nice clear skies Thursday and Friday nights.  I went down to the south end with different groups of people each night.  Besides just enjoying the starry beauty, I shot some pictures with a 14mm lens on Thursday and then many more with a 35mm lens on Friday night.

Here is a preliminary panorama made from the 35mm shots.  I've got some more images of the slave huts that I'll try compositing over the distorted huts in this picture.  There are enough pixels in the original file to print it at 39" by 21" at 300dpi.

The second picture is a cropped out section of the large image, to show some of the detail that is there.

Moon and Planetary Parade

The moon and planets put on a show last night.

Venus is between two palm trees towards the lower right. The moon is towards the middle with Mercury just to its upper right. And then Jupiter shines towards the upper left side of the frame.

It was quite a site, more dramatic in person than in the pictures, unlike the Milky Way.

You'll probably need to look at the large version of the image to see the Planets well.