Night Sky Map and Planets Visible Tonight

Re:Night Sky Map and Planets Visible Tonight by jointpdf on Sunday December 12, 2021 @11:36AM (#29531006)

All of the planets orbit the sun on approximately the same plane (since we started as a swirling pancake of gas and dust that eventually snowballed into planets, and then you and me). It looks like this: https://media.nationalgeographic.org/assets/photos/000/285/2...

If the orbital plane was a surface of water and the northern hemisphere is bobbing above the water, then up is perpendicular to the plane (away from the water, looking down on the top of Earth).

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Re:Night Sky Map and Planets Visible Tonight by detritus on Sunday December 12, 2021 @12:00PM (#29531227)

I can't believe I was {HOWEVER OLD I AM NOW} when I learnt that the Moon is 'upside down' when seen from the Southern Hemisphere. I mean, of course it would be - but I'd never made that deductive leap.

Made me feel like a fool, especially given I made my at-the-time pregnant partner crease her nose in not-quite-credulous but also sorta-believing suspicion when I told her that the Japanese don't see a Man in the Moon, rather a Rabbit, because on that side of the Earth they see the opposite side of the moon. I could only maintain the pretense for a few minutes before she scolded me :)

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Re:Night Sky Map and Planets Visible Tonight by eesmith on Sunday December 12, 2021 @05:08PM (#29534153)

It was odd to see Orion doing a handstand!

And I got lost on a car trip, thinking the midday Sun was in the south. Good thing I was a back-seat passenger.

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