The Heavens Declare!

The above picture was taken by Sabahattin Bilsell and can be seen at SpaceWeather.com. It is a photo of Venus and Jupiter as seen from the Turkish Riviera. (Special thanks to my friend Phil "the Real Deal" Johnson for tuning me in.)

If you get up early enough to see the sunrise, then be looking for these two bright 'stars'. Phil and I saw them on the way into work this morning. On Monday morning, Feb. 4, the moon is also supposed to be really close to them forming "one of the most exquisite celestial triangles you'll ever see."(Dr. Tony Phillips, NASA)

(Note: Venus and Jupiter aren't actually close right now. One is nearer to the sun than we are, while the other is further away--a yawning gulf of 700 million km between them. The planets are merely aligned as seen from Earth, a beautiful yet misleading arrangement.)

To me Psalm 19 says it best:

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun,
which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course. (vs 1-5 NIV, emphasis mine)


Ever heard of Sundogs? Phil also informed me of these. (He is my source of all astronomical knowledge.) Here is some info from Wikipedia:

Sundogs typically, but not exclusively, appear when the sun is low, e.g. at sunrise and sunset, and the atmosphere is filled with ice crystals forming cirrus clouds. They are often bright white patches of light looking much like the sun or a comet and, occasionally are confused with those phenomena. Sometimes they exhibit a spectrum of colors, ranging from red closest to the sun to a pale bluish tail stretching away from the sun. White sundogs are caused by light reflected off of atmospheric ice crystals, while colored sundogs are caused by light refracted through them.

A picture from Wiki:




The sun is in the center, flanked by sundogs, which are always at 22 degrees to either side.



Here is a picture I took:





My hand is blocking the sun. There was a lot of cloud cover that day, but the sun dog is right there at 22 degrees to the right of the sun. Up and to the left of the pine tree.



Something I have seen twice so far is the circumzenithal arc, or CZA:





It is very high in the sky and looks like an upside down rainbow. Like the sundogs, this is caused by light refracting through ice crystals in the atmosphere.

There are also sun pillars, all kinds of arcs and tangents, and at night moon halos (and of course meteor showers). Here is a site that has a wealth of info and some very striking photos: http://www.atoptics.co.uk/

And here's the link that will let you know about some of the coming attractions: http://www.spaceweather.com/



So look around on cold days when the sun is close to the earth, or on clear, starry nights. You might just see the heavens shout.