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Monday's Planet Views Best Until 2036

Posted by timothy on from the hey-we've-all-got-naked-eyes dept.

An anonymous reader writes "NASA is reporting that Monday night, March 22nd, offers a rare, naked-eye glimpse of our five prominent astronomical neighbors--Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and the Moon--in close proximity in the night sky, near to the familiar Orion constellation. This contrasts with the picture of the 'Fab Five' shot by Voyager looking back on the inner solar system. Monday's aligned view is not likely to appear in this configuration again until 2036."

13 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. "Not likely?" by notsoclever · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'd say it's pretty much certain that we won't see that configuration again until 2036, unless Jupiter is knocked out of orbit or something...

    --
    There are 10 kinds of people: ones who understand ternary, ones who don't, and ones who think this joke is about binary
    1. Re:"Not likely?" by notsoclever · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Well, I think that the amazingness of the view is because it's got five planetary-type bodies in view at once.

      I was just poking a little fun at how the original poster said it wasn't likely to happen again until 2036 since without any large amount of external force being applied to one of them, the probability of their orbits being affected beyond our current predictions of their orbital mechanics is effectively zero.

      --
      There are 10 kinds of people: ones who understand ternary, ones who don't, and ones who think this joke is about binary
  2. Been looking forward to this by shadowbearer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The 35mm camera and the 28mm widefield lens are ready. :) Wish my digital could do longer exposures...

    Get outside and take a look at the sky during the next couple weeks. It's worth it. Having this many planets in this small a section of sky doesn't happen very often. Take your kids out there too, and explain to them what they are seeing (it's a good time to demonstrate to them that planets really don't twinkle like stars do, and why - they can see the evidence with their own eyes.)

    Oh, and there will almost certainly be a lot of good pix on alt.binaries.pictures.astro after the 22nd.

    Clear skies everyone.

    SB

    --
    It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
    1. Re:Been looking forward to this by shadowbearer · · Score: 4, Informative

      Google is your friend

      Being rather busy at the moment...

      SB

      --
      It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
    2. Re:Been looking forward to this by CheshireCatCO · · Score: 3, Informative

      You'll probably need a fish-eye lens more than a wide-field. The spread is 135 degrees, which I'm not sure really counts as a small section of sky.

      I'd say that it's less a chance for astrophotography and more for a chance to go outside and view the 5 nake-eye planets with your own two eyes. Not many people have seen all 5 of them, particularly Mercury.

    3. Re:Been looking forward to this by jefft · · Score: 4, Funny
      The spread is 135 degrees, which I'm not sure really counts as a small section of sky.

      No problem you just need to back up a little.

      --
      The Math Maestro Tutoring Services in Seattle
    4. Re:Been looking forward to this by ceoyoyo · · Score: 3, Informative

      Stars are so far away that they're effectively points... zero radius, zero area. So when a little disturbance in the atmosphere distorts the light coming from them, you see the effect as a twinkle. A planet is much closer and shows a disc (radius something larger than zero) even if it's too small to see with the naked eye. Now the same atmospheric disturbances average over the area of the disc and the effect tends to cancel... a little dimming in one area this moment, a similar dimming in another area next moment, so you see a much steadier intensity -- no twinkling.

  3. Stellarium for finding them by isn't+my+name · · Score: 5, Interesting

    And if you need help identifying which is which, or exactly where they are, Stellarium is a great GPL'd product available for Linux, Win and Mac.

    Sourceforge page

    1. Re:Stellarium for finding them by Spy+Hunter · · Score: 3, Informative

      To that I'd like to add that KStars is great planetarium program, and Celestia is just an awesome program in general.

      --
      main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}
    2. Re:Stellarium for finding them by bcrowell · · Score: 3, Informative

      Shameless self-promotion: this open-source applet lets you figure out which naked-eye planets you're seeing, without having to install software. (Your browser has to support Java.)

      --
      Find free books.
  4. Astrology is finally losing ground... by no+longer+myself · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I can remember a decade or two ago, people actually believed that such cosmic alignments would result in earthquakes, floods, and other supernatural disasters. Trying to rationally explain the effects of gravity to them didn't help much either.

    It's nice to regularly see stories like this without having the dreaded doomsday angle.

    Of course there's always a catch to these stories: You won't see anything like this until (insert far-off date here). With so many fascinating things in astronomy, you'll have plenty of opportunities to see an amazing show on any given clear night.

  5. get out your telescope! by OneOver137 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If you have access to one, that is. Unfortunately, with the exception of Jupiter and Saturn, don't expect too much. Mars is 6 months past opposition, and very small in a scope, even at high power. Venus won't show much more than a featureless gibbous disk. Jupiter and Saturn will show a wealth of detail, however. Saturn is in the constellation Gemini, and Jupiter is in Leo. The best time for both is when they are up highest in the sky, which for Saturn is as soon as you can see it, and Jupiter hits the zenith about midnight. Check out Clear Sky Clocks for your area and pay close attention to the "Seeing" forecast if you are using a scope. Happy observing! Oh yeah, don't forget to check out the Moon. It will set early, and won't show much "face" to check out telescopically. A cool thing to show your non-astronomical significant other is to draw line through the ecliptic with your finger and then tell them to think how we are between Venus and Mars. Most people will be impressed.

  6. Belt of Orion viewed from mars by polyp2000 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Thats pretty cool, but a little further down the page I found this...

    Orions Belt Viewed From Mars

    Thats pretty cool! I used celestia some while ago to find out what orion looked like from Mars and this shows just how accurate that program is.

    nick ...

    --
    Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp