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Out of This World: Moon, planets take center stage in a cloudy sky for 90 minutes
Journal Photo by Bruce Chapman
A crescent moon (clockwise from left), Jupiter and Venus are seen despite cloudy skies. The next time that the three will be as close and visible will be Nov. 18, 2052.
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Published: December 2, 2008
A crescent moon, along with Venus and Jupiter, took center stage last night as the three celestial bodies could be seen in Winston-Salem despite cloudy skies that sometimes blocked the view of them.
The moon and two planets came together in what astronomers call a conjunction of planets, which could be seen with the naked eye. The moon and the two planets formed a triangle with the moon as the closest object and Venus as the brightest planet.
Paul Anderson, a physics professor at Wake Forest University who teaches astronomy, said that the clouds might have blocked some people's views, but many people should have been able to see the show for about 90 minutes after sunset at 5:07 p.m. Despite the clouds, it could be seen anywhere in Winston-Salem and North Carolina, Anderson said.
"For those three to come this close in the sky is rare," Anderson said.
The next time that the three will be as close and visible as yesterday will be Nov. 18, 2052, according to the Miami Space Transit Planetarium.
These three objects come together from time to time, but often they are too close to the sun or unite at a time when they are not so visible.
The moon is 252,000 miles away and its gravity affects the Earth. Venus is 94 million miles away, and Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, is 540 million miles away.
Joe Butzbach of Mocksville and Katie Robbins of Clemmons said they would look at the three bodies when they returned home. They drove to shop last night at the stores along Hanes Mall Boulevard.
"It is certainly unique," Robbins said.
David Peterson, who lives in downtown Winston-Salem, said that looking at the three celestial bodies was similar to seeing a comet pass by Earth in past years.
"When I was younger, I had a telescope, laid in the grass and looked at the stars," Peterson said. "You can't do that in downtown."
■ John Hinton can be reached at 727-7299 or at jhinton@wsjournal.com.
■ The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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