PLANETS, MOON LINE UP FOR A SHOW

by Dave Mosher

Planets aligning in the night sky aren't rare on cosmic time scales, but that doesn't mean that they can't be breathtaking.

On December 1, 2008, Venus, Jupiter and the moon put on a show from their respective distances of 239,000 miles away, 94 million miles and 540 million miles away.

Discovery Space fans across the globe stepped outside at sundown to capture the following images.

North Carolina, USA

Tavi Greiner, a radio manager at the Slooh online observatory, snapped this shot and sent it in.

Her labeling shows Venus at the bottom, the star 53 Sagittarii (part of the Sagittarius constellation) and Jupiter with its bright moons Ganymede and Callisto.

Photo courtesy of Tavi Greiner