Explanation:
Did you see it?
The last conjunction
of Moon and bright planets in 2008
featured a young crescent Moon
and brilliant Venus in the west after sunset on December 31st.
Seen here in dark, clear, mountain air from Mönichkirchen,
Austria, are the
two celestial beacons that dominate
planet Earth's night sky.
That pair was hard to miss, but
skygazers
watching lower along
the western horizon in early twilight might also have glimpsed
a pairing of Jupiter and Mercury as they both
wandered closer to the
Sun in the sky at year's end.
Still, while this single, 5 second long exposure seriously
overexposes the Moon's sunlit crescent, it does capture another
planet not visible to the unaided eye.
The tiny pinprick of light just above the photographer's head
in the picture is the distant
planet Neptune.
Note : APOD editor to speak in New York tonight.
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