A gathering of celestial bodies

November

Once you manage to wrest your gaze away from the turkey and all the leftovers, look up into the night sky. Starting tonight, the planets Venus and Jupiter will begin moving closer together and by Monday they will be a finger’s width apart and joined by the moon.

National Geographic News bills the event as a “real showpiece.”

“This is set to be the best planetary gathering of the year, simply because it involves three of the brightest objects in the sky after the sun,” said Geza Gyuk, director of astronomy at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.

Here’s a map from NASA as to how the sky should look by Monday night.

In case you’re wondering why you should check this out, there’s this argument:

“The three celestial objects come together from time to time, but often they are too close to the sun or unite at a time when they aren’t so visible. The next time the three will be as close and visible as this week will be Nov. 18, 2052, according to Jack Horkheimer, director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 27th, 2008 at 9:07 am by Mike Risinit.
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