I hope other who are interested got a chance to see the awesome pairing of the moon and Venus this morning and yesterday morning (9/8 and 9/9 @ about 30mins - 1 hr before sunrise in CT,USA). As well as Jupiter's strong presence in the southern sky all summer. On the early morning of 9/8, the moon was about 4 degrees northwest of Venus @ around 5am eastern. Both only showing bottom half slivers due to the suns placement. Which, unfortunatly, is right below the moon to the left....so as you observe, the sky brightens. And, to me, it always seems to happen fast. This morning was all of the same. However, since our universe is a vast, moving entity the two swapped positions. Venus was to the upper right and the moon was almost straight east....from me. I was choosing to view with a pair of Celestron 15x70mm binoculars the last few days.... also, I am a member of a local astronomical society that meets the first and third friday of every month and was looking at Jupiter and the Polaris double through a 16" Cassegrain telescope. Through both I was picturing myself looking in the same direction, but floating in space behind the earth. Imagine the line-up... Venus, the moon and th earth...all in a row....all waning in the light of the sun. I would love a picture of that. Through my binoculars my shaky hands were making it somewhat difficult to get great detail on Jupiter.... yet I did make out its moons.... it looked like a line strike starting miles away from jupiter and passing through and going miles beyond....almost like saturn looks through some viewers. A fellow member brought his own Meade telescope as well. Looking through, I believe a 9mm lens, Jupiter and her moons stood out. I could make out its bands of creamy storms and see all four of the main moons quite well. I have no clue which moon was which....but just knowing the four moons and seeing the circle with a line through it come into focus to show two moons, Jupiter, and the next two moons all in a line was an amazing thing. It gives you such persepective....not only about my place in the universe. But my physical location in our solar system. Astronomy is great, imo, because it gives me such a better mental map of my world and my solar system and my galaxy and my universe. Before I started enjoying space I would look up and just see space mountain in Disney world. Now I can look up and recognize a celestial object.... and its like i just opened a real life computer program that is quite like a big bang that starts from me. And the whole universe shoots out in three dimensions, relative to my location. Still looking at the same object I can then feel everything around me. I know a certain star is behind me, below me, infront of me...... and it a cool feeling. However....marijuana helps a lot. Weed helps because the universe doesn't work around my sleep habits. Jupiter is out at 8:30-9 p.m. est and Venus is out at 5 the next morning. And if you wanna throw Mars in the middle around 2:30 a.m. Mary Jane is my alarm clock.....................
i hear you man. i love getting high and looking at the stars. you notice same patterns, you know what time certain stars come out. theres something out there. there has to be. its impossible for there not to be life out there somewhere. the technology is out there somewhere. area 51? i bet you if you got enough of smart scientists together to make a ship capable of mass speed. easy to hover and take off and long durations. the thing is money man. no non-government has the funding for millions and millions of investment. some do, but the question comes up, is there technology out there that we don't know about? i dont want to get into it again so ill just stop talking lol. lets grow mass weed on an island and fund a new space program. i wish lol