The two brightest planets in the sky, Venus and Jupiter, will likely draw attention to the western sky as darkness falls.This weekend, Venus shines to Jupiter's lower right, moving up on it day by day. On Monday evening (March 12) they'll appear to line up side-by-side, and on Tuesday evening they will be separated by just 3 degrees (about the width of two fingers held out at arm's length), with Venus standing just above and to Jupiter's right.
Shining in a completely dark sky for more than two hours before finally disappearing beyond the west-southwest horizon after 10:30 p.m. local daylight time, this planetary pair may appear even more eerie when they're sitting just above the horizon as opposed to when they appear higher in the sky.
Contrary to popular belief, conjunctions between Venus and Jupiter are not rare events; in fact they occur on average about every 13 months. Interestingly, the sidereal revolution periods (that is, the time it takes them to make one full orbit relative to the stars) of Venus, Earth and Jupiter are, respectively, 224.7008, 365.2564, and 4332.5894 days.
So 39 such periods of Venus are virtually equal to 24 orbital periods of the Earth and two periods of Jupiter. For this reason, circumstances involving specific conjunctions between Venus and Jupiter repeat under almost identical conditions after a time span of just over 24 years. On March 5, 1988, Venus and Jupiter were in conjunction, with Venus passing 2.2 degrees north of Jupiter. A little more than 24 years later brings us to next week. On March 13, 2012, Venus will pass 3 degrees north of Jupiter.
Looking ahead, on March 22, 2036, these same two planets will come to conjunction once again, with Venus passing 4 degrees north of Jupiter.
Strange things indeed has been happening. I saw it on the news, on facebook, the radio, everywhere. I was seeing brooms standing all by there selves. eggs standing along. brooms hanging from the ceiling by there bristles, brooms standing alone in mid air. I did not believe any of this. It sounds to weird to be true. So I go get the egg and start with that. After about 5 minutes of trying I finally got it to STAND ALONE. Woohoo I was all excited.
So then I wanted to play with the broom. The first few minutes it did nothing. Finally after about 3 minutes it started to stand alone, but as I went to back away and get my camera it fell. So I went to get the camera and came back for a second try. This time it instantly started to stand on its own, in the middle of my kitchen. I started to get chill bumps down my legs. I snapped this pic.
It started to stand alone at 10:49 pm. It is now 3:49 am and it is (let me go check) still standing in the same spot. That is 5 hours straight.It is completely dark and that dang broom handle scared me . I thought someone was in the kitchen as I was trying to find the light.
Did you try this?
Wow ... this is waaay cool and I will definitely be trying both! We have been watching the planets since they are very visible when walking toward our driveway. They immediately catch your eye. Thanks for all the great info!!
ReplyDeleteThat is so crazy that those items would stand alone. Do you know why they do that?
ReplyDeletenot really. just something to do with the planets.
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