Sunday, December 7, 2008

Venus and Jupiter Part Ways, Look for Ursids

Tonight, for the first time in a couple of days, we have nice clear viewing conditions. The humidity is nice and low after a cold from passed through earlier in the day. It will also end up being close to the coldest night of the year that we have had here in West Virginia.

Venus and Jupiter are still dominating the southwestern skies in the early evening, but have been spreading farther apart with each passing day. They look like to jewels glistening in the sky.

Remember to look for an upswing in Geminid activity over the next couple of days. But, we are headed into a full moon, and it will likely wash out viewing opportunities.

There is also a slightly lesser known meteor shower (to me at least) known as the Ursid meteor shower that occurs in the month of December. You may actually have better luck seeing an Ursid or two because the moonlight will become less dominant in the night sky as we head towards their peak on December 22nd and 23rd.

2 comments:

Kara S. said...

Spotted a meteor early Saturday morning about 2 a.m. It was completely unexpected since I only got up to let the cat out and had no idea about the meteor showers. Even with the full moon, the meteor was quite bright and visible. Not sure if it was part of Geminid or Ursid. We live in southern Calhoun Co. and meteor was moving east to west.

JAMcLynne said...

Kara, Good deal. I am gonna go out tonight afterall to take a short look (Sunday night). The skies have finally cleared out and at least there is a nice moon to look at...