Wednesday, March 19, 2008

this




is Venus,I believe.







(Make it bigger, you will see.)

12 comments:

meli said...

oh!

Mary said...

So beautiful - but why am I seeing two gorgeous white stars ? Am I seeing double?

fifi said...

Yes, mary, there are two stars, the tiny one which Venus is chasing up the sky is one I can't identify.
I used to think it was Mercury, I'm not sure...

Ampersand Duck said...

goodness, that looks just like a Jason Benjamin painting! Or is it the other way around? ;)

Arcturus said...

Indeed that is. Furthermore, if that was taken in the morning, then that smaller object above it is Mercury. Go here and read about Mercury.

Excerpted from the site: "Mercury ... becomes visible to southern observers in the morning twilight by mid-month. Late February to March will be the best viewing of Mercury for the year for Southern observers. Mercury climb up to meet Venus and on the 26th Mercury will be 1.3 deg N of Venus 1.9 mag (1st) to 0.6 mag (21st)"

fifi said...

Ah, I knew you would sort that out, Arc. I did think it was Mercury, but didnt want to make an idiot of myself. I like the way venus chases it up the sky, but eventually it gets away from her...
ha ha. I amuse myself staring into the heavens at dawn...


&duck, they look like MY paintings. had never heard of him.....strange..

Anonymous said...

I really must work out a way to live closer to the sea

Anonymous said...

Beautiful photo. I enlarged the photo but then had to go off and get a screenwipe as there were hundreds of stars on my screen - bits of yoghurt that have got flicked there I think!

I so wish I still lived by the sea. Here in the city we never really get a proper night sky.

Pod said...

how wonderfully painterly
perhaps i should get up early and go and bask in venus light tomorrow
chocolatey boingy happiness to you over easter
;0)

meggie said...

Wonderful photo! I wondered about the second star, so have now got the answer!

Pam said...

Well, I'll take all your words for it. Lovely picture, anyway.

How kind of you to offer to feed my boy and his girl; but I think they only pass briefly through Sydney.

Arcturus said...

Fifi, read this article about a gamma ray burst / supernova that was just observed this past week ... it was actually visible to the naked eye ... 7.5 billion light years away or a factor of 3000 times farther than anything ever seen with the naked eye ... half way across the Observable Universe ... that's a mind boggling thought, really unfathomable. (I actually used to work at Goddard in the same office as the scientist mentioned in the article.)