Thursday, June 21, 2007

FLY ME TO THE MOON

Did I ever mention that I am fascinated by Astronomy?
This is from yesterday.
Check out the Archives *here* and todays Solstice.

Recent favorites are from 6/17 the "Analemma" and 6/13 "Warped Sky".








A Daylight Eclipse of Venus
Credit & Copyright: Peter Heinzen
"Explanation: Something was about to happen. Just two days ago, two of the three celestial objects easily visible during the day appeared to collide. But actually, Earth's Moon passed well in front of the distant planet Venus. The occultation was caught from Switzerland in the hours before sunset.

Moments after this image was taken, the Moon, visible as the crescent on the right of the above image, eclipsed Venus, appearing in gibbous phase on the lower left. Clouds that once threatened to obscure the whole event, were visible on the far left. About 90 minutes later, Venus re-appeared just to the right of the bright crescent."

So who can tell me the third celestial object easily visible during the day? Hint:One of three you will never see (from the Earths surface at the Equator) within the several hours before and after midnight. Two of the three are Venus and the Sun.



Here are more photos from around the world here of the occultation.

7 comments:

soubriquet said...

hehehe.....
The Irish Space Agency announced its plan to land a man on the sun by the end of the year....
When asked by concerned reporters how they would ensure the solarnaut (I just invented that one...).. did not just get fried to a frazzle by the sun's heat, the Irish Space Agency said...........
"We're sending him up at night!"

bulletholes said...

They have been spending too much time with George Bush...rumor in the States is that Bush heard what a great energy source the sun would be...

GEWELS said...

HAHAHA! Isn't Bush the BEST joke ever!!!??

Akelamalu said...

Can't answer the question Steve I have no idea.
Love soubriquet's joke LOL. :)

Old Lady said...

When I look at the sky, especially if I look through a lense, I am filled with a sense of fear and awe. It is almost like I am surrounded by the envelope that is space and swallowed by it's immensity.

bulletholes said...

"solarnaut"...i do love that Souby..itsa keeper...how about a "bloggernaut"? or an 'Allfornaut"? This could be fun!

THE ANSWER IS THE PLANET MERCURY...Because Mercury and Venus are closer to the Sun than we are, they are never visible at around midnight. They are knowen as inferior planets because their distance from the Sun is less than (or inferior to) the Earth's distance from the Sun.

The superior planets can be visible at midnight. At midnight you are pointed directly away from the Sun so you see solar system objects above the horizon that are further out from the Sun than we are.

The fact that you can see Venus and Mercury in gibbous and nearly full phase proved to be a critical observation in deciding between a Earth-centered model and a Sun-centered model for the solar system, which nearly cost ol Galileo his life.

soubriquet said...

Damn.
Doesn't the sun count as a celestial object then?
Foo! I thought I was being clever...

The Irish Mountaineering teams attempt to scale mount everest came to a halt when they ran out of scaffolding......


P.S. These jokes are NOT anti Irish..I'm fascinated by the way similar jokes take on different tags around the worls. Canadians tell them of Poles, Finns tell them of Norwegians etc.
In Ireland, you'll hear the same sort of jokes told of folk from county kerry....