OT: Moon and Jupiter (2023 Update)

[Max Demian]

The bright star just to the right of the crescent Moon is Jupiter.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Heard on the radio today that it's a very rare night tonight with all the planets visible in the sky at the same time. (There's a name for this I forgot.) In the UK, we apparently are unlikely to see Mercury and Venus, and would need binoculars for Uranus and Neptune. Best time is around now.

They didn't say exactly how rare or when the next time would be, which were my instant thoughts after hearing it.

Andrew

[ARW]

Next one in 18 years according to Radio Sheffield news

[NY]

When I went out to bring the bins in just now, I could see Jupiter (top right of the moon) and Mars (same altitude as the moon, but about 45 degrees to the left of it). Stellarium shows Saturn just above the horizon somewhere to the right of the moon. I imagine the other planets will rise later in the night.

At first I thought that the word you were looking for was syzygy, but that is 3 or more planets in a straight line, an even more special case of multiple (eg all) planets being visible *anywhere* in the sky at the same time.

[Jethro_uk]

I have every expectation this will be another evenings cloudgazing.

[Andrew]

Thanks, all I need now is a 2000mm telephoto lens :-(

[Tim Streater]

Oh. I thought it was a sixpence.

[Brian Gaff]

All of the planets were on view last night, the last time for 18 years from the UK but as usual it was cloudy apparently. Brian

[Chris Green]

Well, actually, it was beautifully clear last night when I went out to feed the horses (rather late after returning from a funeral) and I stared up at the sky for quite a while admiring it. We're quite lucky here out in the sticks in south Suffolk as the village has no street lights and we're far enough from the lights of Ipswich for the sky to be quite visible. (It's not like really isolated places though, I lived in Oman for 7 years back in the 1980s and out in the desert the stars were wonderful)

[Max Demian]

I tried to photograph it with a smart phone with an 8MP camera but Jupiter came out just as a little fuzzy bit.

In 2020 I photographed Venus next to the Moon with a phone with a 5MP camera and Venus came out as a bright spot.

[The Natural Philosopher]

A good camera and a 400-500mm lens on a tripod should do OK

[Martin Brown]

You will probably just get Venus which is bright at about 4.15pm it should be bright enough to get but you will need a clear SW horizon.

I think Mercury is a bit too faint and low in the sky to see. I certainly didn't on Wednesday when it was clear at sunset.

Saturn which is midway between Jupiter and Venus is well worth a look in a small telescope a 2" will show the rings. It is an ideal thing to show children who have had a telescope from Santa (as is the quarter moon).

If you are up really early then there are visible ISS passes at the moment.

Date Start Time Alt Az End Time Alt Az

01 Jan -0.8 04:55:04 16° ESE 04:55:51 10° ESE 01 Jan -2.3 06:27:59 23° SW 06:31:49 10° SE 02 Jan -2.2 05:41:44 28° SSE 05:43:56 10° SE 02 Jan -1.3 07:15:46 10° WSW 07:18:00 10° SSW 03 Jan -0.6 04:55:29 13° SE 04:55:55 10° SE 03 Jan -1.7 06:28:25 15° SW 06:31:00 10° S

It is fairly rare to have them all visible on a single night. ISTR About 18 years to the next time it will happen.

[Max Demian]

Just now I've seen Jupiter again, further to the right of the Moon, and Orange Planet Mars to the left.

[whisky-dave]

Most people refer to it as the red planet ;-)

[Max Demian]

Yebbut it clearly isn't red. Probably for the same reason we don't call the well known bird "Robin Orangebreast".

[charles]

and we talk about "white" people

[The Natural Philosopher]

It clearly is redder than any object in the night sky, especially through a telescope...

I dont think we even had a word for orange before we knew what oranges were...when was that? Romans I guess...

[Rod Speed]

And blacks who are mostly dark brown.

And the yellow peril who arent really that yellow.

[Max Demian]

1502 or 1512.

[whisky-dave]

But the romaon called it the bloody red planet or whatever it was translated from and we didn;t have the name orange as a colour in the 'UK"

Because when we named the bird we didn;t have a name for that colour until much later when we got oranges imported or known about.

Same with most colours that get given names later on 'in their lives'

The most interesting being brown (also called shit colour or chocolate) which is a colour that doesn't exist. Brown is just a less bright or darker shade of orange :-)