Dec. 1st jovian spectacle!

After a rainy, cloudy weekend I was beginning to worry that inclement weather would obscure my view of Jupiter, Venus and the moon on Monday night. Thankfully the rain cleared up Monday morning, yielding a cloud-free sky for the evening in question. The view from my rooftop was quite lovely, although the pictures I took did not quite capture its true majesty.I tried zooming in, but that unfortunately did not do much to enhance the detail.

Frowny face!

Here are some better pictures from the BBC.

News

For the past few days I have been noticing Venus and Jupiter low in the night sky. They become very visible right after sunset. Today I found an article explaining what was going on. This coming Monday, Venus and Jupiter are going to appear to be in rather close proximity with the crescent moon.

Many sailors see "stars" (actually planets) being close to the moon as a sinister omen. Samuel Taylor Coleridge included this celestial phenomenon in his longest and probably most well-known poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. I have always enjoyed this poem - mainly because ever since I saw the film adaptation in high school, the narrator's voice lamenting "water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink" stuck out in my head for years. Now I have even more reason to like it, as Coleridge must have stood in awe of Jupiter many years ago and was inspired to include the planet in his classic poem.

"No twilight within the courts of the Sun.

The Sun's rim dips ; the stars rush out :
At one stride comes the dark ;
With far-heard whisper, o'er the sea,
Off shot the spectre-bark.

At the rising of the Moon,

We listened and looked sideways up !
Fear at my heart, as at a cup,
My life-blood seemed to sip !
The stars were dim, and thick the night,
The steerman's face by his lamp gleamed white ;
From the sails the dew did drip--
Till clomb above the eastern bar
The hornéd Moon, with one bright star
Within the nether tip."

-Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1797)