Dance Like No-one is Watching

Venus, bright and clear, with Mars above, and above that
but faint (get your binocs) Uranus. And of course,
what about that MOON!!!

Dance of the Planets. That is what it is called when several of the planets and the moon align.

It was a fiercely clear night last Friday, when the dance began.  That is when Venus was tagging along on the crescent of the moon, and Mars was just coming out to play. With binoculars, you could just pick out Uranus as well, above and a little to the left.

Clearly visible above the shining crescent of the moon was the rest of that orb, lit up by Earthshine (the reflection of sunlight back from the Earth to the Moon)

My camera isn't up to the standard of some that can get these clear, but I like this, with the star and moon tangled up in the branches of the maple, and the full circle of the moon visible in the earthshine.

We'll be able to see this conjunction dancing overhead for the next week or so, as the moon moves through its phases and the planets drift apart, so fingers crossed for clear skies.


Meanwhile, as Venus outshines Mars in the late evening sky in the west, don't forget to glance to the east, where Jupiter is outshining just about everything else up there...

So there you have them... our Moon and planets overhead, reminding us all that sometimes you need to just dance.