Spellbinding Planets

Two bright planets on opposite sides of the sky--that's nice.

Two bright planets together in the same constellation--even better.

Two bright planets less than one degree apart--that's spellbinding.

In the early morning sky, Venus and Jupiter will have a spellbinding close encounter on Nov. 4 and 5.
Prepare to be spellbound. On Thursday morning, November 4, just before sunrise, you can see the two brightest planets side by side. Near the eastern horizon, shining brighter than the brightest stars, Venus and Jupiter will be less than one degree apart.

Hold your pinky finger at arm's length. The fingertip is about one degree wide. On Nov. 4 you could cover both Venus and Jupiter with the end of your pinky. When two planets appear so close together, they grab your brain's attention. Why? Because they tickle your fovea--a special part of the human eye.


"Your eye is like a digital camera," explains Dr. Stuart Hiroyasu, O.D., of Bishop, California. "There's a lens in front to focus the light, and a photoarray behind the lens to capture the image. The photoarray in your eye is called the retina. It's made of rods and cones, the organic equivalent of electronic pixels."

Near the center of the retina lies the fovea, a patch of tissue 1.5 millimeters wide where cones are extra-densely packed. "Whatever you see with the fovea, you see in high-definition," he says. The fovea is critical to reading, driving, watching television. The fovea has the brain's attention!

Link to it: www.nasa.gov...

Thanks for bringing this out. I completely forgot about it, mainly because it's so early in the morning when they two rise. But for those of us who are awake at 4:30 in the morning, look to the east to see this.

I went outside this morning just before daylight and got to see it.It was a beautiful sight.........cool

i'm glad that u can see this beautiful event. I do my best to inform you about more.

Thank you very much.It's fascinating