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Look Up
…as the month of June this year we can witness the “Grand Celestial Alignment” when Mercury, Venus, Uranus, Mars, Jupiter, Neptune, and Saturn will all line up. In fact this Friday June 24th coming up will be when they can be viewed the best. While Uranus and Neptune will be faint requiring a telescope to view, the 5 planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn can be viewed with the naked eye. And on this day there will be a bonus, the crescent moon will join the parade appearing between Mars and Venus. So on Friday, get your head phones and put on some MLT Janitor Joe and Starman while you “look up”!
If you miss this event, you will have to wait until September 8 2040 when they line up again.
Hope everyone had a nice first day of summer, or the longest day of the year. Starting tomorrow the days will now start to get shorter! Sorry for being a downer, LOL.
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22 Replies
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To keep you in the mood.
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…and some more cosmic music.
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I remember a similar event in 1982. Some nuts were saying that all those planets being clustered in the same region of the sky would produce a combined tidal force that would rip the Earth apart.
I’m sure there are people today claiming the upcoming alignment will destroy the Earth too, but I’ll bet most of them don’t even know or care what the faulty argument is.
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I haven’t heard that one in a long time David, but yeah it is full of our solar system references, a perfect song for the Grand Celestial alignment. Fortunately it’s a sunny day today here, and start of our first series of warm days with a couple days expected to peak into the 30C, so I will do some looking up and try to capture a few planets with my camera this evening. I will put on some music and hope to capture Janitor Joe “looking down on mother earth, flying through the universe”, in between the moons of Jupiter or around the rings of Saturn.
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I hope David is right and no weird cosmic stuff happens ????
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I’ve been thinking about the Grand Celestial Alignment again: maybe you could get a better view of the spectacle from the moon? On the other hand: then of course you don’t see the crescent moon anymore. Difficult. And above all: how do you get to the moon so quickly ? Do these guys know that?
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Nice one by the Police Jurgen, Sting’s signature vocals is unmistakable. I remember in the early 80s the Police being touted by some as the next Beatles. They certainly had a big impact in the 80s I remember. Walking On The Moon is a catchy song, like it. Will catch you after the Grand Celestial Alignment, hopefully the solar system survives unscathed, LOL.
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Can we add this to tonight’s soundtrack?
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Hi JP! Great choice there, would be perfect for the soundtrack when looking up into the dark mysterious night sky.
Here is another one to add to the soundtrack.
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And this beautiful Beatles gem.
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This song isn’t really about stargazing (beyond the title), but it would be a nice relaxing choice to listen to while lying on your back and looking straight up on a warm clear summer night:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKxX1tNhpuU
By the way, this is the original group reunited in 2014 to perform their hit from 1960, and I think they’ve still got it!
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And another I lie under the stars and dream song:
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Maybe not music for dreaming, but certainly for smiling:
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Nice cosmic themed music videos guys, enjoyed them. Keep them coming.
Last night I wasn’t too successful capturing Jupiter and it’s moons like I did last year, but managed to capture what I believe to be Saturn and asteroid Vesta in it’s asteroid belt. It is the faint dot to the lower left of Saturn (the brigher light). This according to the Planetary alignment photo from NASA (the 3rd photo).
In the first photo I took, there is also a very faint third object to the top left quadrant. I thought it was dust on my computer screen, but it is in fact a moon or another asteroid I think. I didn’t have my tripod with me so these were taken free hand. Last year with the tripod I could make out the rings around Saturn.
While we can find photos of planets and asteroids in books and on the internet, It is much more fascinating and real when you can see them with your own eyes and means like your own camera equipment. It’s like seeing your hero rock stars live on stage or meeting them in person, so much more real than seeing them on TV.
Here is one of my favourite Carpenters songs that fit the theme here.
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That’s a great analogy, Jung! There’s nothing like seeing the universe in person. I got into space exploration following the amazing Voyager spacecraft photos of Saturn, but when I first saw Saturn through a telescope a couple of years later I was just as blown away. For one thing, you can see it as a real 3D object, with the rings clearly passing in front of and behind the planet. And for another, it’s very personal: the photons you see reflecting off the surface are literally for your eyes only.
Nice photos also! There are several thousand stars brighter than Vesta, so most likely those two fainter objects near Saturn are a couple of stars photobombing the field of view.
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David, that Monty Python video really captures the amazement of space in a humorous video. Really well done, one of the better videos explaining the fascination of space for the layperson.
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By the way: while we are on the subject of stargazing and space travel, only very few people know that besides ESA there is another important European space program that carries out manned space flights: BOSA.
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