Good evening y'all!
This evening at dusk I captured an amazing display in the western sky of the Young Moon with Mars and several of the largest stars of the constellations Orion the Hunter and Taurus the Bull.
These pictures were taken at the site of an abandoned textile mill on SC Highway 72 in Chester, with the lone standing smokestack in the foreground. Also included is the contrail of a high-flying passenger jet crossing the path between Luna and Mars across the line of the constellation Taurus.
In the second photo I outlined the constellations as they appear in the eastern sky following the sunset.
This evening at dusk I captured an amazing display in the western sky of the Young Moon with Mars and several of the largest stars of the constellations Orion the Hunter and Taurus the Bull.
These pictures were taken at the site of an abandoned textile mill on SC Highway 72 in Chester, with the lone standing smokestack in the foreground. Also included is the contrail of a high-flying passenger jet crossing the path between Luna and Mars across the line of the constellation Taurus.
In the second photo I outlined the constellations as they appear in the eastern sky following the sunset.
At this time you can also catch the earthshine lighting up the nighttime side of the Waxing Crescent Moon, with either the naked eye, or a good pair of binoculars. Tomorrow on Tuesday, May 7th, Luna will pair up with Mars and continue to rise higher up at sunset.
Mars is faint in the sky because it has moved away from Earth in its orbit. Back in July and August of 2018 it was the fourth-brightest
celestial body to light up the heavens, after the sun, moon and Venus.
In late July 2018, Earth was passing
between Mars and the sun. At that time Mars was six times closer to Earth and shone about 60
times brighter in our sky than it does at present. Now that Earth has
pulled far ahead of Mars in orbit, so that the red planet has dimmed in
our sky. It will fade out of view into the sunset glare by this summer and won’t be bright in Earth's sky again until
around October 2020.
Because Mars is currently appears faint in the skydome, it might be easy to mistake the Red Planet with Elnath (or El Nath), the second-brightest star in the constellation Taurus the Bull. Both heavenly bodies now shine at nearly the same brightness, but can be distinguished by their color. Mars is slightly ruddy than the blue-white of Elnath.
Elnath is also about 130 light-years away from our solar system.
Right beneath Luna is Aldebaran, Taurus' brightest star and is known as the "Eye of Taurus." The name "Aldebaran" is Arabic, which means "The Follower" because it appears to follow the Hyades star cluster that forms the head of the bull. Aldebaran is a K giant star slightly larger than our own Sun and glows red similar to Mars, which it often passes in the night sky.
On the other side of the smoke stack in the photo in the upper left is the bright star, Betelgeuse. Also called Alpha Orionis, Betelgeuse is the second brightest star in the constellation Orion the Hunter, marking the eastern shoulder of the hunter. Betelgeuse is close to our solar system at 65 light-years away -- practically a neighbor in astronomical terms. Its apparent magnitude is about 0.85 making it the 14th brightest star in the night sky.
The star's name is derived from the Arabic word bat al-jawzāʾ, which means "the giant’s shoulder." Betelgeuse is one of the most luminous evening stars and is easily discernible to even the casual observer, not only because of its brightness and position in Orion, but also because of its deep reddish color. Aldebaran is approximately 640 light-years from Earth. Betelgeuse is a red supergiant star roughly 950 times as large as our own Sun, making it one of the largest known stars. To give you an idea of how big that is, if it replaced out own solar system's star, Betelgeuse could easily swallow all of the inner planets and both of the giant planets Jupiter and Saturn!
Orion's other bright stay, Bellatrix, is located approximately 240 light-years away and is thought to have six times the radius of the Sun. Bellatrix is the 3rd brightest in its home constellation and 27th brightest overall in the night sky. Bellatrix is also one of the four stars that are primarily used in celestial navigation.
The constellation Orion stands out because of the three bright stars (Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka) that make up the famous "Orion's Belt". Locating these three stars helps make finding the rest of the constellation fairly easy.
Well, I hope y'all enjoyed my photos. Be sure to drop a comment. Have a wonderful evening and keep looking to the night skies, y'all!
Because Mars is currently appears faint in the skydome, it might be easy to mistake the Red Planet with Elnath (or El Nath), the second-brightest star in the constellation Taurus the Bull. Both heavenly bodies now shine at nearly the same brightness, but can be distinguished by their color. Mars is slightly ruddy than the blue-white of Elnath.
Elnath is also about 130 light-years away from our solar system.
Right beneath Luna is Aldebaran, Taurus' brightest star and is known as the "Eye of Taurus." The name "Aldebaran" is Arabic, which means "The Follower" because it appears to follow the Hyades star cluster that forms the head of the bull. Aldebaran is a K giant star slightly larger than our own Sun and glows red similar to Mars, which it often passes in the night sky.
On the other side of the smoke stack in the photo in the upper left is the bright star, Betelgeuse. Also called Alpha Orionis, Betelgeuse is the second brightest star in the constellation Orion the Hunter, marking the eastern shoulder of the hunter. Betelgeuse is close to our solar system at 65 light-years away -- practically a neighbor in astronomical terms. Its apparent magnitude is about 0.85 making it the 14th brightest star in the night sky.
The star's name is derived from the Arabic word bat al-jawzāʾ, which means "the giant’s shoulder." Betelgeuse is one of the most luminous evening stars and is easily discernible to even the casual observer, not only because of its brightness and position in Orion, but also because of its deep reddish color. Aldebaran is approximately 640 light-years from Earth. Betelgeuse is a red supergiant star roughly 950 times as large as our own Sun, making it one of the largest known stars. To give you an idea of how big that is, if it replaced out own solar system's star, Betelgeuse could easily swallow all of the inner planets and both of the giant planets Jupiter and Saturn!
Orion's other bright stay, Bellatrix, is located approximately 240 light-years away and is thought to have six times the radius of the Sun. Bellatrix is the 3rd brightest in its home constellation and 27th brightest overall in the night sky. Bellatrix is also one of the four stars that are primarily used in celestial navigation.
The constellation Orion stands out because of the three bright stars (Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka) that make up the famous "Orion's Belt". Locating these three stars helps make finding the rest of the constellation fairly easy.
Well, I hope y'all enjoyed my photos. Be sure to drop a comment. Have a wonderful evening and keep looking to the night skies, y'all!
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