Log, Nov 12, 2004
No people. At least a small change, the rain out wasn't simply rain. We had snow as well.I hope everyone who gets up early enough to see the eastern sky before the Sun rises has had a chance to watch Venus race by Jupiter and star Porrima (the Roman Goddess of Childbirth aka Gamma Virginis) over the last two weeks. By matching Jupiter against Porrima you can barely discern its motion in the sky, but Venus strides enough each night to be visibly moved. At their closest, Venus and Jupiter were about as far from each other as the Moon's width and about four times that distance from Porrima. I especially hope you have a chance to catch morning of the 9th when a very thin (10%) crescent Moon joined the grouping. I had thought that with brilliant Venus as a guide that I would have no problem spotting Jupiter once the Sun rose but such was not the case. I have seen Venus so many times during daylight hours that I have lost count. I have seen Jupiter at least a dozen times during the day. I have seen Saturn just once during daylight hours. You might think that Mars which at times is brighter than Jupiter would be easily visible as well but I have never seen it nor Mercury when the Sun was up.-Les Coleman
