Thursday, March 20, 2008

the moon and saturn and regulus

it's the time of the month for the moon to swing past saturn again! look to the south-east to see the moon just below a white-yellow saturn!


this time last month when the moon passed by the 6th planet in our solar system, it also passed through the earth's shadow and shared with us a lovely lunar eclipse!


the above compilation image shows 12 lunar eclipses from 1996 to last month! it's interesting to see how the size of the moon changes in each image as the physical distance between the moon and the earth changes based on the moon's position in its elliptical orbit. enjoy!

2 comments:

Ben Bauer said...

Hey there. Tonight it was warm & dry enough to get out the new telescope for the first time since Christmas. I stumbled upon Saturn, how cool! I literally was doing the sky align & wasn't really paying attention to which stars I was using to align it, but there was no mistaking those rings for what I had thought was a star at first. Can't wait until funds allow for the purchase of a more powerful lens. Good stuff! -Cousin Ben

Unknown said...

wow! what a spectacular little coincidence, ben! thanks for sharing that great story, and i'm really glad you were able to get out and use your telescope! no matter how many times i look at that planet, viewing saturn thru a telescope of any size leaves me stunned in amazement.