APOD: Four Planet Sunset (2010 Jul 31)

[APOD Robot]

Four Planet Sunset

Explanation: This mesmerizing sunset photo was taken from the summit of volcanic Mount Lawu, 3,265 meters above sea level, on July 21. The view looks west, toward the city lights of Surakarta (aka Solo), Central Java, Indonesia. Two other volcanic peaks, sharp Merapi (left) and Merbabu lie along the colorful horizon. Four planets shine in the twilight sky above them. Spread out near the plane of the ecliptic are Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Saturn, along with bright Regulus, alpha star of the constellation Leo. For help finding them, just put your cursor over the picture. In fact, these four planets still shine in western skies at sunset, with Venus, Mars, and Saturn grouped much more tightly this weekend and in early August. By August 12, a young crescent Moon will join the four planet sunset.

<< Previous APOD

Discuss Any APOD

Next APOD >>

[mexhunter]

Hi to all:
The photography is beautiful, but I think that there are five planets, the Earth looks great sunset too.
Many grettings
Cesar

[biddie67]

What a wonderful photograph!! As soon as I finished reading the descriptive paragraph above, I got up and went over to the huge world map that I have on the wall and found Surakarta. Thanks for your fine picture that gave me a glimpse of one of those beautiful places on this Earth and a reminder that the map is more than just a big piece of paper!!

[owlice]

This image and other conjunction photos are on this conjunction thread on the Observation Deck; this article about the conjunction is available in the Communications Center: PhysOrg: Planets to create a celestial chorus line.

Related astronomy lectures:
Mercury, Mars, and Venus
Earth and Moon
Saturn and Neptune

[orin stepanek]

Four Planet Sunset

Explanation: This mesmerizing sunset photo was taken from the summit of volcanic Mount Lawu, 3,265 meters above sea level, on July 21. The view looks west, toward the city lights of Surakarta (aka Solo), Central Java, Indonesia. Two other volcanic peaks, sharp Merapi (left) and Merbabu lie along the colorful horizon. Four planets shine in the twilight sky above them. Spread out near the plane of the ecliptic are Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Saturn, along with bright Regulus, alpha star of the constellation Leo. For help finding them, just put your cursor over the picture. In fact, these four planets still shine in western skies at sunset, with Venus, Mars, and Saturn grouped much more tightly this weekend and in early August. By August 12, a young crescent Moon will join the four planet sunset.

<< Previous APOD

Discuss Any APOD

Next APOD >>

I probably wouldn't find these 4 planets lined up without APOD; that's what's so great about this site! It lets you know what's happening in the sky when it happens.

[León]

Click to view full size image

[Brendan Hart]

Merapi is in Sumatera, just outside Bukatinggi

[biddie67]

Leon - the picture is too small and faint - could you explain what you are trying to demonstate -or- provide a link to a bigger version? Thanks.

In my previous comment, I forgot to add that I'm glad that there are those of you out there that keep track of these conjunctions and can find them in the sky. It's wonderous, marvelous aspect of planetary movements that they can occasionally be found like this.

[owlice]

biddie, click on León's image to get to a larger version.

[Jia Hao]

Merapi is in Sumatera, just outside Bukatinggi

Yes there's a Marapi (some people/resources call it Merapi) in Sumatra, near a town called Bukittinggi. The two volcanos in my photo are Merapi and Merbabu respectively, near Yogyakarta and Solo (Surakarta). This Merapi is probably the most iconic volcano for Indonesia and many tourists visit there.

[DonAVP]

I like the way the planets line up. Kind of reminds me of the movie 2000 a Space Odyssey. But as the article mentioned this lining up happens more that I realized because of the epileptic plane.

Don

[León]

biddie, click on León's image to get to a larger version.

Thanks for the correction Owlice

[Henning Makholm]

I like the way the planets line up. Kind of reminds me of the movie 2000 a Space Odyssey. But as the article mentioned this lining up happens more that I realized because of the epileptic plane.

You mean the ecliptic plane. (So named because of eclipses which happen much more often than they would if the trails of the sun and moon through the sky had not been roughly aligned along such a common plane).

[moonstruck]

Ooooh, I just took a look outside and there they was. Would not have known it if not for APOD. Way to go APOD people. Y''all is the greatist

[ekubaskie]

Hey, that's a FIVE-planet sunset! You left out the closest one, at the bottom of the picture...

[zbvhs]

It's a lovely picture, but look at the smog layer over the city center. Blech!

[neufer]

It's a lovely picture, but look at the smog layer over the city center.

Blech!

PAH!

Surakarta board and initial setup

<<Surakarta is a Javanese abstract strategy game, named for the city of Surakarta. It was featured in "The Book of Classic Board Games" by Klutz Press. The book listed 15 of the most famous classic board games in history such as Checkers, Go, Backgammon, and Mancala.

In this book it was referred to as Roundabouts.

Traditionally, the game is played stones vs. shells, though other easily-distinguished sets of pieces may be used (e.g. red and black in the illustration). Players take turns moving one of their own pieces. In non-capturing moves, a piece travels -either along a line or diagonally- to a neighboring intersection. In a capturing move, a piece travels along a line, travelling over at least one loop, until it meets one of the opponent's pieces. The captured piece is removed, and the capturing piece takes its place. It is illegal to go along the loop without capturing an opponents piece. The first player to capture all of their opponent's pieces wins.>>