The Moon, Venus, Aldebaran, Mars And Even Jupiter Were Out On Display Sunday Morning!

A real treat for sky-, star-, moon- and planet-gazers took place on Sunday morning, July 19, 2009. These bodies met in the North/Northeast part of the sky on July 17, 18 and 19, but the first two days were cloudy (I was up prior to 5:00 AM on all three days!). Persistency certainly paid off as I caught an excellent view on the 19th.

The Moon, Venus, Aldebaran (of the Constellation Taurus) and Mars!


The same photo now labelled so you can see what is what. Note: the helium star Aldebaran is 44.2 TIMES the diameter of our Sun (and you thought the Sun was huge!?)!!!


Another shot. Look at the clouds - very nice.


Notice the sky changing color ... this was taken only three minutes after the previous one!


If I am not mistaken, it appears as if the Planet Jupiter stopped by for a visit as well! Looking South.


Jupiter wanted to witness the meeting of the other four too!


As this point, only the Crescent Moon and Venus remained in the North.




Since I am on the topic of Mars, I thought I'd take my Meteorite Collection out and show a sample from it! Here is a very small fragment of the Red Planet (the Martian specimen is classified as NWA 4880: Achondrite: Shergottite). It floated in outer space for a while and landed on Earth in 2007.


I may as well show some tiny fragments of the Moon too! Found in April 2002. Lunar Meteorite Classification - NEA001: Achondrite: Anorth.


I look to post much more from this area of observation and collecting in the coming months!