When the Stars Line Up...

I've been noticing a pretty sight in the night sky these past few days around 6pm or so. Two bright stars twinkling near the moon. They are big, bright and shiny. I thought they were airplanes at first. But, together? Every night around the same time? I don't think so. I think they are some planets but which two?

So I googled "two stars with the moon on 12/2/08" and amazingly I got answers!! These two stars are actually planet Venus and Jupiter and they are in conjunction.

Think Back. What do I remember from my astronomy class eons ago? Nothing! I do remember my astronomy class was at 8am and I usually fell back to sleep when the room was dimmed and the planets and constellations were projected on the dome ceiling. ZZZZZZZ....

Venus and Jupiter seem to hang closely together (that's what conjunction means). As we all know, it just looks that way. Venus is inside the Earth's orbit and Jupiter outside. They are actually 500 million miles apart.

That's 500,000,000 miles!!

It's really a amazing sight. Two sparkling objects out-shining everything in the sky. The planets accompany the moon harmoniously. We are looking at part of our solar system. It's awesome!

I've tried taking pictures but I just can't capture the beauty of our night sky with my little camera.