When it’s hot, these Dog Days, I bring horses out to graze in the cool of the morning, wandering around the farm before others are up and hopefully before the assault of the morning commute begins.
My livestock guard dog wakes me up every morning at 3:30 am, and really, I don’t want to wake up for a few minutes, but then I remembered Venus and Jupiter being conjunct. Out of bed I leaped, phone in hand, grabbed a few horses, and out we went.
As a bonus, Saturn was pretty close to the Moon, on the other side of the sky. Too far away to get much of a pic with an iPhone though.
An interesting fact is that your clenched fist held out at arm’s length equals 10 degrees. (Knowing stuff like this could save your life someday!) This morning was the moment of closest approach- just 0.86 of a degree; less than twice the apparent diameter of the moon! But, next week, the crescent moon will seem to drop down out of the sky to join them, perhaps a ladle scooping up the stars.
Moon, Zoom, Cuddle and Croon, Down by the Wrinkling Tide
Moon Man fishes for a silvery star that fell from a shimmering sky
-The Moon Man Song by Michael Hurley
The show isn’t over yet though. This morning may have been the closest approach, but up until about August 23, we still have good viewing of the conjunction as it moves apart, is joined by the moon, and then is joined by other planets- Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are currently aligning in an arc and will be most visible closer to the 23rd. Uranus and Neptune will require help to see.
I’m not exactly sure how wide this arc is though, because Saturn is really close to the moon (to my eye anyway) right now. I will have to go out a little earlier tomorrow morning and see if I can trace the arc for you.
I use a really cool app to learn the names of the stars these days and to find planets- we didn’t used to have things like this and sometimes it feels like cheating, but, it’s very handy, especially when you have a few horses in hand. It’s called SkyView Lite and I use the free version. I also have Night Sky but I like SkyView Lite better because the labeling is a little easier for me to see, though some people may prefer Night Sky. Both are available on the app store.
This conjunction of Venus and Jupiter is happening in the time of the constellation of Cancer.
I’m always somewhat suspicious about these sorts of proclamations, however, because I have a sneaking suspicion that the stars aren’t where Galileo left them. In other words, everything is moving around up there in this highly coordinated dance. So if it was Cancer in 1693, just to pick a date, is Cancer the Crab really up there right now? And wouldn’t this actually be Leo we are in as far as astrology goes?
To solve this mystery, I turned to Google. Yes, I may be a Citizen Scientist, but I don’t know everything and you’d be amazed at the stuff I have to Google. Like, “how to turn down the volume on my TV.” I really did that tonight, but, it turned out that the batteries were around backwards in the remote.
So I Googled, “where is cancer in the night sky right now.” I really did.
And I’m glad, because I got one of my favorite websites, Time and Date. This is a very useful website for moon rise and set times, as well as declinations etc, and other gobbledy gook we can get into later.
Here’s a screenshot of one of the useful features of Time and Date. As you may notice, Cancer is just below the horizon in this shot, in the North-Northwest, below our friend Ursa Major.
So I’m still not really sure why this is the “Time of Cancer.” I guess because Cancer is rising. Maybe if there are astrologers on here, some will weigh in.
I’m currently trying to set this up so you can join, and comment, but as in all things Internet, I’m having to figure out how to keep it spam-free. I’m also about to embark on figuring out how you get a notification when I post a new blog article, if that’s something you want to happen.
But, in the meantime, enjoy. And get outside tomorrow morning!