With the space shuttle program scheduled to be discontinued there will only be a few more chances in our lifetime to see anything like this! Saturday and Sunday just a little while after sunset take a look to the west. Weather permitting you should have a spectacular view of a crescent moon with a very bright planet Venus just above it.
But wait there's more!....
If you know when to look you will also be able to see a "double flyover" of the space station and the space shuttle. Saturday night willbe a little better I think since the shuttle and station will be clearly to seperate bright lights flying past the moon and Venus! As you are facing the west in awe of the planets,stars, and moon the spacecrafts will be approching from your right (north). If you are here in the Atlanta area it's Saturday night at 9:35 and Sunday at 10p.m.
Read the enire story below and follow the links to find the showtime for your area!
Enjoy!
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May 13, 2010:
This weekend, Venus and the crescent
Moon are gathering in the western sky for a spectacular conjunction,
and they're not alone. The International Space Station and, very
likely, space shuttle Atlantis will join them for a rare four-way
meeting of spaceships and planets over many locations.
A Venus-Moon conjunction over the Alps of Austria in 2008. Photo
credit: Tamas Ladanyi. [more]
The show begins at sunset when Venus and the Moon emerge from the twilight in close proximity to one another. The Moon will be exquisitely slender, a 5% crescent on Saturday, May 15th (sky map), and a slightly fatter 10% crescent on Sunday, May 16th (sky map). Between the horns of the crescent, a ghostly image of the full Moon can be seen. That's "Earthshine"—the light of our own planet reflected back toward us by the Moon's dark terrain. In conjunction with Venus, a crescent Moon with Earthshine is regarded as one of the most beautiful sights in the heavens.
Into this tableau of surpassing beauty comes a spaceship--and maybe two!
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