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Jeff Berkes Photography
Jupiter, the moon and Venus take starring roles in a sunset sky extravaganza, as captured by photographer Jeff Berkes in Pennsylvania's Chester County.
The glitterati of the solar system turned out this past weekend for an Oscar-worthy show: a triple play featuring Jupiter, the moon and Venus in evening skies. This photo, snapped by photographer Jeff Berkes in Pennsylvania's Chester County, is a classic portrayal.
"The crescent moon, Venus and Jupiter have formed a slim triangle in the western skies at sunset," Berkes told me in an email on Sunday. That's not all: Mars rises in the east a few hours after sunset. This sky guide from Space.com's Tariq Malik provides the details. Even if the skies are cloudy all night, you can still get in on the fun online via Slooh.com's planet-watching webcast.
The moon is shifting progressively farther to the east in evening skies, but anytime this week should be prime time for the planetary extravaganza. Got great pictures? Share them via the Cosmic Log Facebook page or msnbc.com's FirstPerson in-box. You'll also want to get a look at the beauties on Jeff Berkes' website as well as at SpaceWeather.com and Space.com.
Update for 7:30 p.m. ET Feb. 27: NBC News' Brian Williams featured a beautiful time-lapse view of Venus, Jupiter and the moon that was captured on Friday night by Roberto Porto on the road to Teide National Park in Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Check it out:
Jupiter and Venus, positioned near one another, are shining brightly in this view from Roberto Porto in the Canary Islands. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
More from Jeff Berkes on PhotoBlog:
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
Leave a Comment:
Beautiful picture and amazing links for study.
While the "Indoctrinated" world-wide argue , fight , ruin it for man and foul this planet, some of us can join the "Intelligent and ABOVE -IT -ALL" to follow what the future may still hold for those who used their "OPEN Minds."
Thank you for opening this world to everybody interested.
Saw this last night, was wondering which planets they were.
Nice, was wondering as well which ones, looked very pretty north of the 49th.
Glory to God for His wonderful Creation.
Saw them last night. From the suburbs of Atlanta I knew they were planets because I can only see bright stars/planets around here.
I used my starwalk app on my phone to identify them.
There used to be a nice app in google market called messier objects, it showed all of the main galaxies/stars/etc and tied into the google sky map, seems like it got removed but it was pretty informative and there seems to be far too few good sources for things like that.
Breathtaking new photos from Brian Williams followed by thought provoking discussion with Neil Degrasse Tyson, Director of Hayden Planetarium.
As he stated, considering so very many people now have excellent eyesight (corrective vision) due to Lasik, just as ONE example of the huge benefits when only 1/2 of one cent on the dollar has been allocated to NASA - don't we wonder WHAT other MAJOR benefits if we only invested ONE CENT on the dollar........
The quantity and quality of NASA's spinoffs are enough to make one's head, er, "spin"
He has just put a new blog up on Neil Degrasses Tysons comments and book re: "Does NASA'S Budget Need A Boost?"
YES!!
Yours is an excellent comment for THAT blog also!!
Even though I live in a city but closer to the county, my backyard is a little more darker and tonight with the clouds gone, seeing Venus, Jupiter, the crescent moon, Orion, Gemini, and Mars, not to mention the Pleiades, Aldebaran, Sirius and a few stars here and there..........
Absolutely pretty and absolutely scary at the same time.
"Absolutely pretty and absolutely scary at the same time."
Jasmine, when we look North, South, East and West on THIS planet today and see nothing but SEVEN (7) + BILLION desperate people and counting, hourly,while losing wildlife etc, going UP seems to be the ONLY answer OR.............
The more one travels on Earth the more BEAUTIFUL it looks "Up there".
(As long as man doesn't make the SAME mistakes again, of course.)