Many of us having been looking up into the night sky during the past week and wondering about those two
Jupiter & Venus Dance with the Moon
bright stars twinkling around the moon. Satellites? A space station? I’ve heard many theories. But just yesterday I found out that they are, in fact, two of our well-known planets coming together in a heavenly dance that won’t be seen again for a very long time: Jupiter & Venus are moving across our sky, converging with our moon and raising everyone’s eyes to the heavens.
With Dominica’s proximity to the equator, we have been treated to outstanding nightly displays of these two planets twinkling back and forth as if vying for the moon’s attention.
Monday Night will be the climax of this performance, as Jupiter moves toward Venus and the crescent moon backs them up. After Monday the planets will move away from each other – Jupiter will continue its quest across the western sky.
You can read more about the spectacular Monday night sky on Nightsky Friday at Space.com.
Want to see just what the Night Sky looks like from Dominica?
There are several (free) programs that you can download to your computer which will allow you to see the night sky, wherever you are in the world. One of my favourites is the Starry Night Widget (for the Mac). Mac users can download the Starry Night Widget here. Then just enter Dominica’s co-ordinates.
Dominica’s exact location is:
- Lat: 15.42
- Long: -61.37
PC users can download Starry Night 1.0 for the PC.
Enjoy your star-gazing!