Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Nov 7, 2004 8:13:10 GMT -6
Why the Skies look as They do now...
While prepping for Tuesday's conjunction event, I went out a short while ago to see if I could locate the moon with the naked eye in the blazing sunlight. I located it quite easily, but could not target Jupiter. Not to worry...with the scope on it, should be no problem...I hope!
I wanted to plot out the positions of the planets presently in relation to each other, and see in a overhead helio graphical view of the bodies.
1. - Here...it becomes plainly simple on why we see the planets in our eastern skies...
Clearly Mars is just peeking up over the solar glare, with Mighty Jupiter and brilliant Venus commanding the dawn.
The Occulting moon just skirts Venus to chase after Jupiter it seems.
2. - And just about at a 90 degree right angle is Cool Saturn above our heads.
3. - Controlling the night now are mysterious planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto...who seems to be dashing into the solar glare now.
And as we all are traveling in a counter-clockwise rotation around the Sun, it's an interesting graphic just to ponder on the mechanics of it all.