Anyone who likes astronomy...

[pinnies4me]

For the next hour of so you can see three local bodies within a few degrees - look south-West to see the new moon, Venus and Jupiter in a rare close grouping.

[Creech]

Yep just saw that! Absolutely amazing. So close but yet so far. Where's a telescope when you need it?

Do you know how often this formation happens?

[pinnies4me]

Try this neat little unit to see when something like this happens - http://sourceforge.net/project/platformdownload.php?group_id=48857

You can set the location you are at, and tell it any date or just click the fast forward a few times and you get an effect like The Time Machine and watch the changes in the sky, a few thousand years in a few seconds!

As for how often, pretty rare to have three local bodies in such close formation, lots of years at a guess to have the three brightest objects in the sky do it again.

[Creech]

That is bloody amazing. Thanks for the link mate.

[pinnies4me]

.

[63wizz]

Fantastic pics, they are calling it the smiley face on the news this morning.

[pinnies4me]

That's what I called it last night when I asked Mrs Pinnies4me to "Come and have a look at the cosmic smiley face" !! :)

[Strangeways]

Venus and Jupiter are in view. But where is Uranus ?

 

[markc]

yes we saw it

smiley face

[Chuck]

This is twice I've been sucked in by misreading this topic.  Both times I saw:

Anyone who likes as...

I thought, "ummm, I like it..."

btw, the pics are very cool.  A cosmic smiley face =)

[stuba]

i have a mate with an awesome telescope and digital camera setup through it. this is a pic he took recently...



makes you realise our planet is very, very small........

[Strangeways]

WOW.. That is incredible... I wonder how many pinballs there are in the universe ?

 

[pinnies4me]

Wow +1 !   

[Nug]

ah NOW, you see the beauty of all that is it!

just wait till it all lines up in about 3 years! ..such a ride!

PS such an opportunity! 

[pinball god]

Nice shot Pinnies4me. I got a bit of movement in my shot because I couldn't stuffed using a tripod or do you have a steady hand?

But Stuba, I hate your mate....if there's one thing I can't get enough of is looking a t shots like that. Anything to do with space and I'm sucked in for hours. Would love to beable to see (and take pics) of stuff like that, but I live to close to the city to warrant buying such equipment. My sky is usually an ORANGE colour. When I lived in Mt Martha the skies were black.

Thanks both of you for the snaps