Welcome Equinox!

To welcome the Vernal Equinox tonight (at roughly 2010 EDT), we were out for a bite to eat and then a bit of shopping. The day was clear and warm, and the evening sky was clear and mild. At the time of the equinox we were outside strolling, and observed Venus and the crescent moon low in the Eastern sky.

The not-that-close-to-conjunction — the Moon and Venus were separated by perhaps 20 moon diameters — had been suggested as a tasty astronomical treat by a NASA mailing list that I'm on, and it was quite pretty. Venus was very bright; the Moon was the barest crescent, with the dark majority of the disk illuminated by ghostly Earth-glow. Happily, it was even prettier, and certainly more realistic, than something that might be done up by digital photo manipulation.

It was an enchanted evening, although we saw no strangers across a crowded room.

Posted on March 20, 2007 at 21.05 by jns · Permalink
In: All, Briefly Noted, It's Only Rocket Science

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  1. Written by S.W. Anderson
    on Wednesday, 21 March 2007 at 01.37
    Permalink

    Remarkable — I saw the very same thing, same dramatic golden glow and all. It was beautiful indeed.

    However, the day here has been cold, with wind gusts — blasts is more like it — all day long. I really, really hate windy days, especially unseasonably cold ones. Brrr and grrr.

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