Planetary Alignment January 3, 2009

On the evening of January 3rd 2009, the planets Jupiter, Mercury, and Venus aligned up with each other and with the moon in the southwestern sky. While the moon is not considered a planet by the modern astronomical definition, it was considered one of the 7 planets by the ancients; that's good enough for me to call it a planet here.

Sorry for the poor quality, but my camera obviously wasn't designed for taking astronomy photographs and videos. The last two planets were just barely visible on my computer, but you can't see Jupiter at all here on YouTube. Perhaps you'll be able to see it when the high quality version kicks in, but since I shot this at 15fps rather than the usual 30fps, YouTube might not process it as high quality. :-( We'll see.

Here's an illustration of the alignment from Sky And Telescope.
[link removed]

Category:

Education

Tags:

• cousinomacul
• astronomy
• planets
• moon
• venus
• mercury
• jupiter
• alignment

[jessieilagan]

your crappy camera goes well with a crappy tripod. BUY ONE!

[CousinoMacul]

I shot this while I was at a friend's house, so I didn't have either my good camera or my tripod.

[GOAQ]

Fellow keen amateur astronomer. Good stuff. Blows your mind when you see these things through magnification. I remember the first time i viewed the moon...Amazing. I'm saving for a decent telescope so i can view Saturn and Jupiter clearly.

[CousinoMacul]

They are awesome! Right now Saturn's rings are practically edge-on, so it'll be a few years before it's truly impressive. If you watch Jupiter long enough, you can see some of its moons move. In fact, you can keep time by watching Io, Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa (with a timetable, of course).

[Barklord]

Hoax!

Is it possible attach a cammera to your telescope?

[CousinoMacul]

I don't have that set-up.

[supercomic123]

thay all look like dots to me...

[jessieilagan]

i think u were give ur pa a blowjob

[jessieilagan]

crap....

[Lity10]

Jessieilagan shut your fucking mouth, will you? No one wants to listen to your motherfucking crap, shut it sucker. Go critisize some other video, this vid pwns! =P Good job btw =)

[54spiritedwill54]

I saw this planetary alignment on Dec 31, 2008. It was awesome because venus was closer to the moon :)

[jessieilagan]

fuch

[jessieilagan]

oh you were making out with your momma......

[jessieilagan]

were you masturbating when you did this crap?????