Somethings in this life seem to bring peace and solace to my soul. They are often the little things, the one's that we race past in our quest for what? That's a good question, one I could spend hours on. I shall save that for another day.
At night not long after the sun has set, I have enjoyed going outside and spending a little time with the sky. I am fascinated by the two stars that shine down on me. They remind me that God is watching over me and that He truly rules the universe.
From The Watcher
Venus and Jupiter are the second and third brightest objects in the night sky, after the Moon. Every evening Venus has appeared higher and Jupiter lower on the western sky. Now they're about to cross paths. From now until March 17th the two planets will be within 5 degrees of each other, fitting in a single field of view through most binoculars. They will be 3 degrees apart at their closest approach on March 13th.
Look for them before the sky fades completely black. With supported binoculars you will be able to see Jupiter's four Galilean moons (as long as they're not too close to the planet) and Jupiter's tiny disk. You may also be able to make out Venus's disk, which appears slightly more than half as wide as Jupiter's. And
if you look even more carefully, you might see that Venus is now in its gibbous phase, only 60% lit. Venus will appear nearly eight times brighter than Jupiter. Planets will shine in a completely dark sky for more than two hours before finally disappearing beyond the west-southwest horizon after 10:30 p.m. local daylight time.
When the planets are closest, Venus will glow at a magnitude -4.3, while Jupiter will shine at -2.1 on astronomers' magnitude scale in which lower numbers correspond to brighter objects. Negative numbers suggest and extremely bright view - the lower the figure of magnitude, the brighter the object.
After this conjunction, Jupiter will slowly disappear from the evening sky, becoming difficult to observe by mid-April. But Venus will reach its highest and brightest in April. That's also when it will start to be a spectacular crescent through a telescope. Two planets will be paired again in late June and early July, but not as closely and very inconvenient to observe, low in ;twilight before dawn on some of the longest days of the year. They will be spectacularly close after sunsets in May 2012, with Mercury nearby to add to the excitement. Unfortunately, the trio will be very low in the bright twilight.
Venus and Jupiter won't appear together again in a fully dark sky until June 2015. But that will be a truly amazing conjunction, with both planets fitting together in a high-power telescopic filed of view.
End of article.
Isn't that amazing? To actually view other planets pass by. I am star struck! And all of it reminds me to stop and take time to enjoy the ultimate gift of living and breathing! It reminds me to take notice of my heart beating. It reminds me to slow down and savor life. By the way, on March 22, 2036, these same two planets will come to conjunction once again, with Venus passing 4 degrees north of Jupiter. I will be 79 years old. That's if I live to see it. I hope I will.
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