Absolutely stunning!

[Stu]

Morning!

I had the dubious pleasure of being up at 4am for a flight to Barcelona from Gatwick.

The sky was lovely when I stepped out of the house, Mars and Saturn shining nicely in front of the house.

What made me really go 'wow' however, was the beautiful conjunction between a lovely crescent Moon and Venus again a dark sky which I caught from the car once on the M23. Was very low down but I had some lovely views, whilst trying to concentrate on the road! At least it kept me awake :-).

This is the view on SkySafari. I hope some of you managed to see it, and maybe image it.

Stu

[Pete Presland]

just got back from my local "darkish" spot Mars and Saturn were like the Hors d'oeuvre before the main event.
a fabulous conjunction between the crescent Moon and Venus they looked very eerie as they climbed out of the haze, well worth the early start! will post some images after i have got a coffee and warmed up.

[Stu]

Fabulous, thank you :-)

[Beulah]

It's that time of year when a camera needs to be on hand when out and about in the early morning.

Saw this conjunction this morning whilst up a hill and the Moon with its earthshine and Venus looked absolutely beautiful above just above the peak of a hill on the horizon.

What a way to start the day!!! 

[Delboy_Hog]

Ha ha, I was just about to post something similar when I saw you beat me to it!   

I agree, the Moon and Venus made a beautiful sight this morning, as you say, absolutely stunning!

It really made my morning.  Sometimes the universe just throws something spectacular at you, and all you can do is just boggle at it and think “wow”.  Of course I’m gutted that I didn’t have my camera with me – I really must make more of an effort to look in advance for when these things are going to happen, and put them on the calendar!

[Stu]

You have to get up early in this game Delboy ;-). In sunny Barcelona now, would have missed it otherwise.

[Stu]

It's actually in my iPhone calendar but hadn't looked at it!!!

[kerrylewis]

I was up from 3.30am but the seeing was indifferent and the dew was a problem so packed in around 5:00 completely forgetting the moon /Venus close encounter. Ah well.......

[Lorne]

Spotted this on my way home from my nightshift in the brightening sky - stunning. Would love to have seen it earlier with a darker background

**Quick edit..... My view of this (55N 3W) had Venus to the upper RIGHT of the moon, just rewound Stellarium to make sure I wasn't imagining it 

[Stu]

Spotted this on my way home from my nightshift in the brightening sky - stunning. Would love to have seen it earlier with a darker background

**Quick edit..... My view of this (55N 3W) had Venus to the upper RIGHT of the moon, just rewound Stellarium to make sure I wasn't imagining it

Ah yes, my SkySafari is setup to show a refractor view which is reversed :-).

It was lovely against a dark sky but glad you saw it.

Stu

[andrew63]

Missed it Stu - sounds a lovely sight. Great image here though APOD today.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

andrew

[Stu]

Amazing picture Andrew, hadn't seen that one so thank you!

Cheers

Stu