If, like me, you’ve been amazed at seeing Jupiter and Venus so close together and so bright in the night sky this week, then you’ll probably appreciate some of the amazing photos that have been taken around the world by amateurs and professionals alike.
People have been sending in pictures to places like the BBC, to The Guardian and to Space.com, as well as of course, uploading them straight to Flickr.
The people behind the Slooh Space Camera have made a time-lapse video of the conjunction available, shot at the Canary Islands observatory.
But by far the most striking image I’ve seen is the one above, taken by Marek Nikodem at Szubin in Poland.
It’s one among a collection put together by Astronomers Without Borders, an organisation set up to “foster understanding and goodwill across national and cultural boundaries.”
As AWB says in its mission statement: “The boundaries we place between us vanish when we look skyward.”
The Jupiter-Venus conjunction and Marek’s photo seem like rather fitting metaphors.
This is wonderful!