17 July 2007
Planetary Parade over Farm
Venus is the brightest star-like object in the image. Saturn, which is considerably fainter, shines near the crescent moon.
Photo by Aymen Ibrahem, Senior Astronomy Specialist
On 16 July 2007, there was a fascinating planetary alignment in the Egyptian skies. It was an evening conjunction of the Moon, Venus and Saturn, over the western horizon. Mr. Aymen Ibrahem, Senior Astronomy Specialist, pictured the celestial spectacle from a farm, near Alexandria, Egypt.
The Moon was only 2 days 6 hours 32 minutes old. From Earth, only about 5% of its visible surface was illuminated. It was approximately 390,000 km from Earth. Venus was approximately 60 million km from Earth. At a distance of approximately 1,500 million km, Saturn was over 23 times more distant than Venus.
Saturn far dwarfs Venus in size. With a diameter of approximately 120,000 km, Saturn is nearly 1,000 times larger in volume than Venus. The mass of Saturn is approximately 115 times that of Venus! Venus is known as our Twin Planet, as it is similar in size and mass to our planet.
Further Reading
Earth and Moon Viewer
http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/vplanet.html
Your Sky
http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/
Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem
Senior Astronomy Specialist