Whew! Compared to last week, this week is pretty quiet, so I’m going to keep this one short…
Our wintry nights are still long, here in the midst of “Deep Winter” (more on my 8-season outdoor calendar to come, later…), and I, like almost a third of the US, am REALLY cold. But those long winter nights are great for stargazing… I’ve been admiring the Winter Hexagon, the Winter Triangle (both depicted here on top of each other), and the morning planetary conjunctions.
The equilateral “Winter Triangle”, and the larger “Winter Hexagon”, connecting Orion, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Gemini, Auriga, and Taurus.
Yesterday’s alignment of Jupiter and Mars was something special. Unfortunately, though I had nice clear skies, I also had high winds and -10 or something (F), windchill. I had a lot of trouble stabilizing things for a photo – between wind, and the cumbersome clothing, I just couldn’t get the vibration to let me get a clean shot… but I did get this, slightly cleaned up. Not often you get this many solar system objects in one tight view!
Jupiter, Mars and the Galilean Moons, together in one frame at 6am (1100 UTC) on Jan 6, 2018.
If you like this sort of thing…. well, Jupiter will be moving away from Mars over the course of the week, but come Thursday morning, Jan 11, a waning crescent moon will pass right by the both of them for a lovely triad. Saturday morning, if you’re really good with an unobstructed, clear southeast horizon, you might catch Saturn and Mercury together — Mercury rapidly headed toward and behind the Sun, while Earth’s motion is pulling Saturn up and into the night sky.
Venus is at opposition, directly opposite the Sun from us, on Tuesday. We’ll get these planets back into the evening soon, I promise!
Get Out There!
Troy
http://www.flying-squirrel.org
Flying Squirrel Outdoors 
Laughing, Troy. I like stars but I am not sure I like stars on a minus 10 windchill factor night. You have my admiration, however! On another note, have you used the i-Phone app that you hold up facing any section of the sky and it shows you the constellations in the area? –Curt
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I’m an Android guy but yes (Google Sky Map) but I use that as a last resort of I can only see one star through a hole in clouds and just can’t orient. I like the general awareness that comes from having a map of the sky in my head! Appreciate the endorsement of my tenacity. 😁
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You’d like our place in the woods. No urban light and we lay on our backs and stare up at the Heavens admiring the Milky Way in all of its glory! You sound like quite the expert on the stars… –Curt
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Thanks, lifelong hobby. And yes, from what I’ve seen of your place I would very much like it. The mountains in the backyard aren’t too shabby either!
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Nor the river in the front yard. It’s all good. (grin)
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Great stuff, as always. It’s been too cloudy in the mornings around here, so I haven’t been able to see Jupiter and Mars dance, but the Winter stars have been great. It’s never too cold to go and have a look.
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It’s never too cold to look, but it has been too cold to gaze… stare for a prolonged time, etc. 😁
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Good work there on the Jupiter/moons/Mars capture.
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Thanks, not my best, certainly. To be honest this was a situation where I got back in the house after freezing my butt off, was disappointed to find most everything blurrier than I thought… but I didn’t have it in me too go try again!
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