Explanation:
Sunday, the sky seemed to smile over much of planet Earth.
Visible the world over was an unusual superposition of our Moon and the planets Venus and Jupiter.
Pictures taken at the right time show a crescent Moon that appears to be a smile when paired with the
planetary conjunction of seemingly nearby Jupiter and Venus.
Pictured above is the scene as it appeared from
Mt. Wilson Observatory
overlooking
Los Angeles,
California,
USA
after sunset on 2008 November 30.
Highest in the sky and farthest in the distance is the planet
Jupiter.
Significantly closer and visible to Jupiter's lower left is
Venus,
appearing through Earth's atmospheric clouds as unusually blue.
On the far right, above the horizon, is our Moon, in a
waxing crescent phase.
Thin clouds illuminated by the Moon appear unusually orange.
Sprawling across the bottom of the image are the hills of Los Angeles, many covered by a thin haze, while
LA skyscrapers are visible on the far left.
The conjunction of
Venus and Jupiter will
continue to be
visible
toward the west after sunset during much of this month.
Hours after the taking of this image, however,
the Moon approached the distant duo, briefly
eclipsed Venus, and then moved on.
digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081203.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';
