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Look outside tonight - the planets are smiling (Read 630 times)
freediver
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Look outside tonight - the planets are smiling
Dec 1st, 2008 at 7:44pm
 
You will have to leave your computer to see this one. Or at least, see the SMH article.

A smile that will light up the night sky

http://www.smh.com.au/news/specials/science/heavens-smile-on-you/2008/11/28/1227491827180.html

...

THE world may be facing its worst economic turmoil in decades, but the heavens are about to smile on Australia.

A rare cosmic alignment tonight will produce a smiling face - or an emoticon, depending on your generation - high over the country.

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If you take a picture of tonight's Smiley Sky, email us with your images and we will display the best on smh.com.au tomorrow.

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From soon after 8pm until just before 11pm the planets Venus and Jupiter will stare down from the western sky like two brilliant eyes. Directly below, the crescent moon will form a happy mouth.

"I think it will be very spectacular," Sydney Observatory's astronomer, Nick Lomb, said. "The three brightest objects in the night sky will all be in the same patch of the sky."

As the night draws on, Dr Lomb predicted, "the smiley face" - with Venus playing the left eye and giant Jupiter the right - "will improve and become a little more compact".

To the superstitious, unusual astronomical apparitions were often seen as omens. While Dr Lomb said he did not believe in such things, he noted that Monday's smiling face will appear on the eve of the next Reserve Bank's meeting at which it will consider interest rates.

"There was an upside-down sad face visible on the morning of April 23, 1998," he recalled. That day's Herald was dominated by news of conflict on Australia's waterfront, protests against child-care costs, big rises in bank fees and executions in Rwanda.

Dr Lomb urged people to attempt to photograph tonight's heavenly show, which will not smile on the US or Europe.

"It should be very easy to take a photograph with a digital camera and a tripod. Use a one-, two- or three-second exposure and, of course, no flash."

However the cosmic cheeriness will be a fleeting affair. Another smiley face will not grin over Australia until the early hours of July 21, 2036.

Sydney Observatory will stay open for tonight's show, allowing people to stare back through telescopes and glimpse Jupiter's moons, Venus's gibbous shape and lunar craters.

For bookings ($15 adults, $10 children), phone 9921 3485.
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tallowood
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Re: Look outside tonight - the planets are smiling
Reply #1 - Dec 1st, 2008 at 7:49pm
 
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ישראל חיה ערבים לערבים
 
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DILLIGAF
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Re: Look outside tonight - the planets are smiling
Reply #2 - Dec 1st, 2008 at 8:10pm
 
Hey  thanks for that Freediver it was awesome! We had just enough cloud cover to block out ALL the stars and just show the moon,Jupiter and Saturn.  Smiley

Awesome image.
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Sprintcyclist
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Re: Look outside tonight - the planets are smiling
Reply #3 - Dec 1st, 2008 at 8:29pm
 
that was cool.
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tallowood
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Re: Look outside tonight - the planets are smiling
Reply #4 - Dec 1st, 2008 at 8:33pm
 
That proved that celestials don't care about CO2.  Cheesy
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