Saturday, December 3, 2016

Some big nights ahead for the Second Avenue Star Watchers



Via East Village astronomy buff Felton Davis...

Amazing lineup of planets setting in the southwest this week: the sun in Ophiuchus setting at 4:30 pm, Saturn in Ophiuchus setting at 4:55 pm, Mercury in Sagittarius setting at 5:34 pm, Pluto in Sagittarius setting at 6:56 pm, Venus in Sagittarius setting at 7:30 pm, Mars in Capricorn setting at 9:30 pm, and Neptune in Capricorn setting at 11:19 pm. What a spectacle for people viewing over the Hudson from High Line Park or from Battery Park.

What does that leave for Second Avenue Star Watchers? It leaves a nice four-day old waxing crescent Moon about seven degrees north of Venus in the constellation Capricorn, and if it doesn't cloud over, later in the evening the famous Pleiades star cluster rising high in the heavens between Aries and Taurus.

If it stays clear I'll set up outside The Bean (East Third Street & Second Avenue) at 5:30 pm to show the Moon going down, but don't get your hopes up for the Pleiades, because that one is difficult to spot from the street.

Updated: Unfortunately, the cloud coverage made all this impossible this evening... Felton says he will try again tomorrow night...
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 3, 2016 at 4:40 PM

    Thank goodness we live in the 21st century. Otherwise, this would considered some kind of omen, for good or for bad.

    ReplyDelete
  2. FeltonDecember 3, 2016 at 5:35 PM

    Sorry for tonight - horizon to horizon clouds have moved in and both the Moon and Venus are gone. I will check tomorrow at about this same time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousDecember 3, 2016 at 7:15 PM

    I am so jealous! I am an avid sky watcher, and lived in the EV for decades, now in the UK.

    We don't have this in my neighborhood. Our sky is too bright at night also to see anything else but the moon (height of buildings, chimneys, trees, clouds playing a huge factor.) If all that passes muster, I can see what I call "the morning star". A steady bright thing which fades as the sun comes up, and is seen at dusk sometimes elsewhere in the UK (usually south of London.)

    I saw Mars very brightly on Houston with the naked eye -- there was some rare occurrence years ago. I also saw an eclipse on E. 3rd.

    Thanks so much for this.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousDecember 3, 2016 at 11:40 PM

    I hope tomorrow is clear.

    ReplyDelete

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