Moon and Venus Above Palms, originally uploaded by Kelson.

The first two shots were taken at twilight (well, dusk, really), around 5:05–5:10 PM PST, while the third was taken at 5:30, after night had fallen.

It’s really odd to walk out of the building into a lot that’s normally lighted (even when I head in to do emergency server maintenance at midnight) and see it completely dark.

Well, not completely dark. There was a little light leaking from windows behind me, and streetlights filtering through trees, and what I could see of the sign on the building across the street. Nothing compared to some of the camping trips I’ve been on, or the drive through Ka‘u at night. But for a suburban office building, it was a change.

Edit: Oops! For some reason I’ve been convinced that this was Saturn, but it’s actually Jupiter.

First, remember on our most recent trip to Las Vegas (last March) we repeatedly encountered a slow-moving, hand-painted truck labeled “Henry’s Moving” on the drive out. Well, after a trip to Fry’s this past Sunday, we spotted it again.

Second, for the first time in 1½ years, I managed to spot Venus in broad daylight again. I went downstairs to grab a snack about 3:20 this afternoon, and noticed the first-quarter moon in the East. Remembering how I located Venus the first time, and already in the shadow of the building, I traced a line from the moon toward the sun, and found it, a tiny white point in the light blue sky. It was almost directly overhead, and just outside the area around the sun where the sky turns increasingly white. I lost sight of it, but managed to locate it again before I went into the cafe, and once more when I walked out.

I probably looked silly, staring straight up at the sky. But hey, how often do you see another planet during the day?

Edit: I went back down a few minutes later and took a photo. It actually showed up, which seriously surprised me.

My parents gave me a flexible mini-tripod for Christmas, and it proved very helpful here, as there was nowhere flat where I could set the camera and still get a good view. I ended up coiling it around a stair railing, which held the camera in place long enough to get a decent exposure.

I seriously thought about pulling my SLR camera out of the closet and seeing whether I had any film for it, but ultimately decided against it.

Someone on Slashdot mentioned it was possible last week. I took it seriously because back in high school, I used to watch Venus fade into the brightening sky on winter mornings. Often I could still find it once I arrived at school, since I knew exactly where to look.

I tried unsuccessfully a couple of times over the past week, but today I had a ~20-minute walk mostly facing southward, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

I used the Moon as a guide, trying to guess the distance based on how far apart they were last night. As I passed through a building’s shadow, I spotted a stationary white dot in the right area, a bit more than a hand span away from the crescent Moon in the direction of the sun, barely visible next to some wispy clouds. I couldn’t find any sign of a con trail, and it didn’t move, so it clearly wasn’t an airplane, but I was able to look away and back and still see it.

I caught it again from the mall itself, about 15 minutes later after I finished eating and started walking back. This time I was able to peg it down as the distance from one eye’s image of my thumb to the other eye’s image of my little finger. Same place, no sign of movement. Could be a weather balloon, but still…

I kept pausing next to trees or traffic signals to look for it again on the way back, but couldn’t spot it again until I walked into the shadow of another building. Apparently just blocking the sun’s glare wasn’t enough, I had to let my eyes adjust for a few seconds. But it was right there, in clear sky this time, and I was able to walk past a few trees and find it again within seconds.

One final test: as I reached the building where I work, I walked around to the far side to put myself in its shadow. A few seconds to let my eyes adjust, an outstretched hand, and *bam*, there it was!

First sighting: 12:52pm. Last: about 1:35pm.

(via Slashdot)

This view of the Moon and Venus was taken from our apartment balcony earlier this evening.

I also took a picture yesterday, from the top of a parking structure near John Wayne Airport (we went to a show at UCI later that evening.) You can see the red trail an airplane left as it crossed the frame:

Having seen that pairing last night, I knew I had to be ready to catch it today! I figured the Moon would be a lot closer, but I hadn’t expected it to actually pass Venus tonight. It really gives you an idea of how far the Moon moves in 24 hours. (or, in this case, roughly 23 hours, since yesterday’s picture was taken at 6:00 and today’s was taken at 5:10).

To be honest, I wasn’t actually certain it was Venus. It was my first thought, because of the brightness and the color, but I kept thinking it was too far from the sun. I kept trying to convince myself it was Jupiter or maybe Saturn (it wasn’t red enough for Mars, and besides, I’d seen Mars on the other side of the sky the night before). When I looked it up and realized it was Venus, I started remembering my days in high school when I would walk to school for a 7:00am “zero period” class. In winter it would sometimes be just dark enough when I left to see the planets and the brightest stars. I would keep my eye on Venus as the sky brightened, trying to see how late I could still see it by knowing exactly where to look.

(P.S. sorry for the repeated updates—I accidentally hit “Publish” instead of “Save and Continue”)

Somehow I’d never noticed that after sunset, the band of red encircles the entire sky at the horizon. Even more amazing, if you look away from the sun you can actually see the Earth’s shadow on the sky as a slightly darker blue below the pink. It reminded me of the view of Mauna Kea’s shadow on the cloud layer below. Oddly, though I didn’t pay any attention to it at the time, the Belt of Venus is clearly visible in that photo!

I guess at sunset I’m most likely to be looking at, well, the sunset. Or focusing on whatever it is I’m doing at the time.

This was Thursday night, so the moon was almost full. It rose just below the Belt of Venus, just inside the shadow. So close to the horizon, the moon illusion was in full effect, and it looked huge!

And me without my camera. *sigh*