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As predicted, the sky show did happen – the 10% illuminated crescent moon joined in the conjunction of Venus, Mars and Saturn in the western sky this evening.

Hurray for clear skies. The weather was pretty stormy yesterday until early this morning, but every wisp of cloud cover had cleared by early evening. It was a pretty starry night, though my attention was mainly focused on the western sky – where the moon and the three planets were hanging low. (Plus, stars aren’t easily photograph-able in Singapore skies anyway – too bright. :()

Planetary conjunction with the moon joining the crowd.

For larger resolutions, you may check out the photos I’ve submitted to Space Weather.

Ooh, and just take a look at the earthshine on the moon. I rarely see that here, actually – because the overpowering city lights. Hmm, tonight is indeed special.

As promised, I did end up dragging my woozy self up to the rooftop garden to capture this rare event in the sky. (Still pretty much reeling from the after-effects of IV sedation from my early morning procedure today – but nothing, absolutely nothing stops me from my sky watching!)

Thanks to the sky for co-operating. It made a pretty positive ending to an otherwise one-of-those-I-want-to-forget days.

There is supposed to be a meteor shower going on at this moment too, actually. But … the sky garden faces the wrong direction, so I doubt I would be able to do any decent fireball-watching. If you have a window facing the North-East however, don’t forget to look outside! (Do check whether the perseid meteor shower will be visible in your area first, though!)

Venus, Mars and Saturn are slowly closing in for a triple conjunction coming Thursday – where they will be the closest they can get to one another – but are already forming really pretty patterns in the sky as of now.

In view of this, I’ve been using my parents’ rooftop garden as my little observatory, photographing the planets as the gradually gravitate towards one another. Hurhur. Thank goodness for the occasional clear nights in between the stormy days we’ve been having as of late.

Planetary conjunction as on 6th August 2010.

The sky appears pink in the pictures, no thanks to the light pollution that continually plagues Singapore. On a completely dark sky, the planets are supposed to appear much brighter than you see here, especially Venus.

Apparently, we’re also reaching the peak period of the perseids meteor shower as well, which coincides with the maximum planetary conjunction (Venus, Saturn and Mars) this coming Thursday. Oh, did I mention that the crescent moon will be joining the three planets for a quadruple conjunction too?

Planetary conjunction as on 9th August 2010.

Look ma, I caught a meteor!

Nah, I kid. It was actually a passing airplane. The skies here a wee bit too bright for proper meteor watching.

Lemme’ have clear skies this Thursday! I just hope I am able to crawl out of bed of witness and photograph the whole thing. (Going for some procedure coming Thursday morning where I’ll be all drugged up with IV, supposedly leaving me pretty much zonked out for the rest of the day … but I’ll haul my ass up to the rooftop by hook or by crook!)