Tapok-tapok sa mga planeta (May 11, 2011)

[rodsky]

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On May 11, 2011, at around 5:00 am (or 05:11:11 AM if you prefer the "cuteness" of pairing it with the date 5/11/11 hehehe), four planets of the solar system will have a conjunction over the eastern horizon. The two bright planets involved are Venus and Jupiter, with Mercury and Mars providing faint companionship with the two other bright planets. Mag tapok-tapok sila in the sky, with angular separations of no more than 5 degrees from each other (with Venus and Jupiter only about 1-2 degrees apart!).

The event will take place about 10-15 degrees above the eastern horizon at around 5am. If you hold your fist in front of you, the angular separation between the bottom of your fist and the top of your fist is about 10 degrees, so two of your fists held on top of each other will represent 20 degrees...hold them in front of you with the bottom of your bottom fist on the eastern horizon, and that's the area you need to check.

Here's a snapshot off Stellarium that I took, to show how the event will look like...



Now, important notes about this event:

a) Will only be visible in GOOD, CLEAR WEATHER, especially considering how low the event will take place in the eastern horizon (area where the sun rises).

b) This "tapok" doesn't mean that the planets are really close to each other--they are only close to each other from the vantage point of earth...in reality, they are NOT close to each other. To illustrate this...

...let's go out of the earth and view the planets involved from a distance.


As you can see, if we draw a dashed green line from the earth, the line-of-sight we create passes through all the four planets, even though they are not really that close to each other...viewed again from a vantage point closer to the earth, this is how it looks...


So natiming lang nga line of sight sila, mao na ang hinungdan nganong murag "nag-tapok" sila in the sky. So, what does this mean? It means nga conjunctions do not spell the end of the world or such things--they are only nice things to look at in the sky, if you know where to look, and you know what you're looking at :

My best guess is, if you were not informed about this event in advanced, and you saw this event yourself on the morning of May 11, you would think "Unsa kaha nang mga bright stars nga nakit-an nako outside the window? Nindot lagi..." and you'd never know what it was...

...but now you know Just hope for good weather on that day

-RODION

[CocoCrunch]

Interesting. But it's been cloudy for weeks. I doubt we can witness this.

[rodsky]

Interesting. But it's been cloudy for weeks. I doubt we can witness this.

Easy to find out...

Geostationary Image Browser -- SSEC

...I've managed to predict weather fairly well (for actual astronomical events) using only SSEC. This event is still a month away...lots of time for the (current) weather to change.

-RODION

[CocoCrunch]

Easy to find out...

Geostationary Image Browser -- SSEC

...I've managed to predict weather fairly well (for actual astronomical events) using only SSEC. This event is still a month away...lots of time for the (current) weather to change.

-RODION

cool site. thanks for sharing it. seems like Cebu will still be cloudy and windy for days. Im not sure if its because of the high pressure

[Norad-II]

Google has a really neat app called Sky Maps that lets you see the positions of celestial bodies based on your location, so anybody with an Android phone can just point their phones skyward and try to find it.

[rodsky]

Google has a really neat app called Sky Maps that lets you see the positions of celestial bodies based on your location, so anybody with an Android phone can just point their phones skyward and try to find it.

Great...now if only I had an Android-capable phone, hehehe Seriously, thanks for the heads up However, I wish to introduce methods that would only require simple tools like your hands and or sticks, and prior knowledge of the cardinal points (N, E, S and W) in your own locality. This way, even ordinary people can enjoy the activity without having to rely on cool gadgets. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish for such a gadget.

-RODION

[sHenZee03]

I hate you for letting me know weeks before this happens. Now I'm excited as hell.

[rodsky]

I hate you for letting me know weeks before this happens. Now I'm excited as hell.

It's always better to be prepared long before the event occurs rather than be frantic a few days before it happens.

-RODION

[sHenZee03]

It's always better to be prepared long before the event occurs rather than be frantic a few days before it happens.

-RODION

I become more calm when the event would happen like 3 days from now or closer. Anyways, I have marked my calendar and thank you for the heads up.

[beyee]

Goodies, this is one interesting news rodsky
So mag EB2x pod diay sila with special line formation lols.
Thanks for this one rodsky