Smiley Face Conjunction - Monday 1st December

[iceman]

Make sure you head outside over the next week and look to the West after sunset - you’ll see the brilliant Venus and Jupiter closing in on each other until they are at their closest on the evening of the 1st December, 2008.

What makes this conjunction even more special, is that the pairing is also joined by the thin crescent Moon - giving us our very own smiley face in the sky! Check the attachment below to see what I mean.

The view below is what you’ll see from mid-latitudes in Australia at around 8pm AEDST on the 1st December. Your view might be slightly different depending on where in Australia you live, and it might even be upside down if you live elsewhere on Earth.

Venus and Jupiter will be a close 2° apart, and the Moon will be about 3.5° away from both of the bright planets.

But don’t wait until the 1st December, just in-case it’s cloudy on that day! The couple of days before and after the 1st December still show a lovely conjunction of the planets but the Moon will be further away. The video here (http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=HMdFB625JiI) shows an animation of the motion from a few days before to a few days after the 1st December.

I just love conjunctions like this and love photographing them. Now I need to find a nice spot to set up and take some photos. Here’s hoping for clear skies!

Make sure you get out and take a look or a photo or two as well. I'd love to see your results posted in the Solar System Images forum on IceInSpace.

Good luck!

[wavelandscott]

You beat me to posting a reminder about this...How cool is that alignment!

[cookie8]

Hi Scott & Mike
Absolutely won't miss out on this one. Hope I will have something to post.

[OneOfOne]

I hope the clouds clear up, the ASV will be at the Solar System Model in St Kilda for a public viewing.

[Ric]

I'll be looking to capture a few images of this one, it looks a beauty.

[RB]

I wonder if Jen will have a go at this smiley.

:whistle:

[spacezebra]

Good one RB!

:lol:

Cheers Petra

[leon]

Now that will be something worth waiting for.

Leon

[h0ughy]

now the long range forecast for the hunter is to be clear on the monday - i hope that proves to be true

[matt]

I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone's shots.

Mike - it might be a nice idea to set up a new thread to act as a gallery for everyone's images, so they can be all collected in the one thread?

Or they can just post images into this thread.:)

[matt]

Well...that was pretty exciting.

I just popped popped outside with the 10x50 'nokkies' and had a quick squizz at the crescent moon...and there below it...about 5 degrees away to the east, is Venus. Bright and clear.

I've never actually seen venus during broad daylight, optically aided or not.

But it's easy to see at the moment given its proximity to the moon.

Haven't been able to pick up Jupiter yet, though.

[matt]

And there's Jupiter.!!!!! Visible at 11.10am...:D

[iceman]

hmm Sydney-siders might be ok after all - the skies are clearing.. hope it continues that way!

[mozzie]

hi all layed down on the back pavers spotted the moon then low and behold there's venus adjusted my focus and got jupiter im stoked:thumbsup:to see all 3 in day light that excited heading back out the wife and kids will be home soon cant wait to show them

[mbaddah]

CLOUDS!!!!!!!!!!!! :( Is there anywhere in Sydney thats clear maybe I can drive now and quickly catch a glimpse of it?

[BerrieK]

Been cloudy here at Orange all afternoon, evening and night so far :(... what a bummer.

Look foreward to seeing photos of the conjunction here on IIS since I cannot see it fo rmyself! Even my kids are disappointed.

[mozzie]

what a site well worth it slightlt cloudy walked around the land a bit then out popped the moon and planets and it was cristal clear :eyepop::eyepop:turned the bino's to m31 to show the wife man what i site after so much bad weather since iisac good to see something :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[cookie8]

Nothing but bloody clouds here. Cannot see a damn thing. Suppose to see this::) but becoming this::mad2:

[iceman]

Well I was lucky on the central coast.. clouds and light rain, followed by about 45 minutes of clear patchy sky, then clouds again.

So I got something! Photos transferring off the card now. Will try and get to some of them tonight (took heaps!).

[thorsdad]

Had a few clouds drift past, but just cleared up nicely to take a few shots with the telephoto lens on the tripod.

Check it out:eyepop:.

One set of clouds went past and the missus thought it looked like Marge Simpson with the vertical hair style. Damn, I missed taking that pic. We were in stitches in the back yard. :doh:

[NickontheCoast]

At last!.. nothing too special .. set the old Fuji S5500 to auto ... put on the timer to avoid bumping things....bingo ...Shame about the poor skies in other places, ours only cleared Saturday night.

[jjjnettie]

I had to work tonight, and took the opportunity to point the conjunction out to many dozens of people.
Even my juniors were getting excited about it, telling the customers to look up when they go out into the car park.

Thanks to everyone who's posting photos, I didn't get a chance to record it.

[badchap]

There were a few pesky clouds about not that long ago, I had to drive down the highway just a few suburbs to home, and in those 10 or so minutes, the clouds cleared, and what a great view !

[iceman]

It was a brilliant visual sight, I'm glad I got to see it. It got some great media coverage too.

[RB]

Yeah, I just got back.
It was a lovely sight, some cloud, heaps of mozzies, will post some shots of smiley later.

Cheers

[luka]

Does anybody know how often a smiley like this happens?

[matt]

I believe we'll get another one in about five years....of some description.

We won't get the same Moon-Venus-Jupiter configuration again until 2036!

[OneOfOne]

I turned up at the Solar System Model in St Kilda around 7:20 to see a slight scattering of cloud around the Moon with some very thick clouds on the western horizon. By about 8pm the clouds had pretty well cleared and stayed clear until around 11pm when I finally packed up and went home.

Several other members from the ASV were taking guided tours of the planetary model while we had three other scopes setup for passers by to look through. I guess we had about 100 people turn up, 40 were on the tour. I even had one local woman who was trying to take a photo from her house across the road when she noticed the crowd, so she came over in her jammies and slippers! We alternated between the Moon and Jupiter, with an ocassional view of Venus (boring). People were amazed at the detail on the Moon and the fact that they could see Jupiter while the Sun was up. The light pollution in the area is quite severe so we were pretty limited with any deep sky viewing...but managed to fit in Alpha Centauri, 47 Tuc and M42 for the people.

Hopefully we can get a few more things like this happening for IYA2009...which is exactly what it is all about!

I think many people will remember the event and the interest shown by the ASV members in showing them the skies. A job well done.

[iceman]

Great report Trevor. It got quite a lot of media attention so it was nice to hear about the public getting involved.

[lacad01]

Unfortunately nothing but clouds in Sydney last night, thanks for the reports and photos from those with a bit more luck ;)

[Ric]

I managed some great views in between the clouds earlier on in the evening. by 9:30 we were pretty much clouded out with the occasional glimpse.

It was definitely a special sight in the sky.

[wavelandscott]

Unfortunately, taking a look outside with my family showed things to be completely cloud covered at our house.
We did not have much to smile about with respect to this conjunction.

On the plus side, we did get to see things on Sunday night, while not a full fledged "smiley" we were all able to get the idea of what it would have looked like.

[h0ughy]

well my images are up (did them last night) and they are here (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=38326) and the preliminary images from Sunday night here (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=38289)

[cookie8]

Not much to smile about for me. Completely clouded out last night. Regarding what we should call it,I think Micky Mouse conjunction is more appropriate

[Paddy]

We had a fantastic view from our place, with clear dark skies. It looked much more impressive and smile like than I expected. Perhaps the small gentle smile of the Buddha, or Mona Lisa.

Had a bit of time with my new 16" which was great. Also rolled out the 12" GSO for comparison. What a difference!

It felt very nice to pack up and walk back to the house with the cosmic smile setting.

[BLiTZWiNG]

Images from Mike and Houghy are on news.com.au too :)

[Ric]

Tonights view was very interesting with the moon on the opposite side. If you tilted your head it was a frown.