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Get ready for the Venus Occultation on Dec 1st

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  • 21-11-2008 10:30pm
    #1
    coylemj
    Registered Users Posts: 25,394 ✭✭✭✭


    Venus will be occulted by the four day old Moon at 15:37 UTC during daylight on Monday December 1st and an hour after sunset when the Moon is (hopefully) visible low in the SE sky, Venus will reappear bang in the centre of the crescent at 17:08 UTC so should resemble a diamond ring.

    Times above are for Dublin, the reappearance will occur at 17:04 in Galway.

    Don't miss it.

    http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/planets08/1201venus.htm


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    #2
    davidoco
    Registered Users Posts: 656 ✭✭✭davidoco


    Date 25th November.

    If you look to the East after sunset between 5 and 7 pm you will see Jupiter and Venus very close in the sky (you can't miss em). You will also get an idea of the "plane" of the solar system by imagining where the sun is and the line that Jupiter and Venus follow.


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    #3
    rhonin
    Registered Users Posts: 1,248 ✭✭✭rhonin


    davidoco wrote: »
    Date 25th November.

    If you look to the East after sunset between 5 and 7 pm you will see Jupiter and Venus very close in the sky (you can't miss em). You will also get an idea of the "plane" of the solar system by imagining where the sun is and the line that Jupiter and Venus follow.

    Spotted that yesterday evening coming home from work. Amazing sight. They are really bright.


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    #4
    hibby
    Registered Users Posts: 273 ✭✭hibby


    It was spectacular. I spotted it by accident as I was leaving work. The sky was already dark and I happened to see it at the moment of emergence, and saw the "diamond ring" effect.

    I hadn't heard in advance about the occultation, and didn't know that the phenomenon would be so short-lived. By the time I had rung my dad and told him to take a look, there was considerable distance between the moon and Venus. I was very surprised that Venus raced on ahead of the moon as they both moved towards the horizon. Somehow I thought the moon should be "faster"!


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    #5
    Flukey
    Registered Users Posts: 11,001 ✭✭✭✭Flukey


    I knew about it, but had forgotten about it. I too happened to see it by chance on my way home from work, but knew what it was when I saw it. It was spectacular seeing Venus emerge from behind the Moon. In a slightly less elegant way of describing it, someone I know who saw it said she thought it looked like the Moon had a nipple. :) When I got home the two were well apart, but I got this photo:

    MoonOccVenus.jpg


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    #6
    coylemj
    Registered Users Posts: 25,394 ✭✭✭✭coylemj


    hibby wrote: »
    I hadn't heard in advance about the occultation, and didn't know that the phenomenon would be so short-lived. By the time I had rung my dad and told him to take a look, there was considerable distance between the moon and Venus. I was very surprised that Venus raced on ahead of the moon as they both moved towards the horizon. Somehow I thought the moon should be "faster"!

    The Moon was faster but it was moving away from Venus, the increase in distance between Venus and the Moon was caused almost completely by the Moon moving along it's orbit which two days after the New Moon is away from the Sun.


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