Brightest Moon in Two Decades

Tonight the Moon will be closest to Earth in 18 years making it the biggest and the brightest since then. With all the hype created over the last week I really wanted to know what's the big deal. Last two days the moon really looked big enough at sun set. Just a while back I took a walk to my garden to check its brightness and it was bright enough. The shadow created by the moon was so dark and the garden was so well illuminated that I felt like sitting in there for an hour chilling out (I had bought a KFC bucket with chilled Pepsi) but for those ridiculous mosquitoes. Yet I feel all the hype ("Super Moon") wasn't worth it. It's still worth to have a look.

Picture of the Month - November 2010

The above two images were taken on an early morning on 5th of November. This picture shows the thinnest Moon you can ever see. The thin crescent Moon was accompanied by a crescent Venus, shining bright, right before the sun rise. The crescent shape of the Venus is quite clearly seen in the above picture.

The phases of Venus was first identified by Galileo Galilei when he looked through his telescope for the first time on 1610, which confirmed the theory of heliocentric (Sun is in the center of the Solar System) which was proposed by Copernicus.

Picture of the Month - October 2010

You must be wondering what those two bright objects at the bottom left of the picture is. It can't be Venus, since Venus doesn't have any satellite. It can't be Jupiter since none of the Jupiter's satellite are big enough as in the picture. It can't be Mars since Mars appears red. What else could it be? A binary star?

Well, that's it how Earth and Moon looks like from Mercury. This picture was captured by MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging), a spacecraft sent to Mercury by NASA, which was launched in 2004.

Picture of the Month - September 2010

This beautiful image was captured at Spain last week. The Venus is found glowing bright to the right of the crescent Moon. The sky was almost entirely covered clouds letting only the Moon and the Venus to shine. The thick storm clouds surrounded by the thin anvil clouds which are greatly illuminated by the setting Sun. And the flock of birds that appear as a dark shadow over the clouds. What a sight!

Jupiter At Its Brightest!

Anytime you look into the night sky you can see that the brightest object is the Moon, followed up by Venus and Jupiter. For the last few weeks I had been enjoying the beauty of Venus in the west and just as Venus sets, Jupiter rises in the east. I am waiting for the Venus to shift its position so that can I see Venus in the east and Jupiter in the west at the same time. I haven't seen them together since the 'Great Smile Incident', Dec 2008.

Venus on the top-left, Jupiter on the top-right, Moon in the bottom-middle. The Great Smile.

Also to add an interesting fact, Jupiter is found to be the closest to Earth tonight since 1963. It will be just 368 million miles away from Earth. So Jupiter is going to very bright today (though not as bright as Venus). So keep an eye on Jupiter tonight!