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ALL THE PLANETS in the solar system have lined up tonight and while some are difficult to see, “technically someone who has the skill could see all the planets”.
David Moore, editor of Astronomy Ireland, adds that people will also have a chance to see all the planets again tomorrow night as well.
While those who live in the southern hemisphere will have an easier time in spotting the planets, Moore says it is much harder to do so in Ireland.
He adds that he waited for the opportune moment to view the planets this evening but clouds got in the way of his view.
However, the editor of Astronomy Ireland pointed out that “Jupiter is blazing next to the moon” and this can currently be viewed with the naked eye.
Moore told The Journal that it’s “pretty rare” that the planets are visible at the same time.
Five planets are visible with the naked eye, but the two furthest away, Uranus and Neptune, will be best viewed with binoculars.
“Neptune is very dim, it’s just to the right of Jupiter,” says Moore. “You need a good pair of binoculars to see that, but I prefer looking at it with a telescope. And Uranus, you would also need a pair of binoculars to see that.
“It’s a bit quirky because some of these planets, you can never see with the naked eye, but there are all up in the horizon at the same time and all we need is a clear sky.
“However, to get a clear sky in Ireland down to the horizon is actually quite rare, it’s about one in every nine nights that that happens.”
While the chances of seeing Venus and Saturn are gone for tonight as the planets have set, Moore has good news as all of the planets will also be visible tomorrow night.
“It’s not one night only, it’s for several nights in fact,” he explained.
Moore had this advice for stargazers who want to get the best view tomorrow: “If you want to see them all, you’re definitely going to have to have somewhere with a clear southwest horizon, because that’s where Venus and Mercury are.
“They’re very close to one another and very low down soon after sunset, which is around 4.30pm. So you need to be ready from then.
“In Ireland, Venus then sets at 5.30pm, so you have an hour between sunset and Venus setting, so there will be twilight for that hour and you’re going to be looking very low.
“If you’ve got any trees or houses in that direction, you just wouldn’t see it, so on top of a hill or anywhere that’s got no trees or houses towards the southwest is best.”
While Moore says “it’s tricky”, he adds: “These are doable with a naked eye. Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, you can see them now if you have a reasonable sky.”
He also offered this advice for people hoping to catch a glimpse of the planets tonight.
“Jupiter is near the moon tonight and doesn’t set until midnight. So anyone who looks at the moon tonight will see a brilliant star to its right.
“It’s the brightest star in the whole sky and it’s actually the planet Jupiter, and that is tonight only.
“If you’re not interested in astronomy, you’re missing out. If people indoors are watching the TV tonight, if you just opened the back door and looked up at the moon, they’d see Jupiter sitting right next to the moon.
“There are a lot of clear skies over Ireland tonight and it would be a tragedy for people to miss this beautiful spectacle of nature.”
Moore also informed The Journal of some things to look out for in the coming weeks.
“On 3 January, the planet Mars will be even closer to the moon, which is very rare.
“Mars is a very bright star, the brightest star in the in the whole sky and it’s going to be sitting just on top of the moon on Tuesday night, so the New Year kicks off in really spectacular fashion.
“And anyone who’s got a telescope, on New Year’s Day the moon is going to pass in front of the planet Uranus, as seen from Ireland, so the next few days are crazy for astronomers.
“There’s a new comet coming as well that we’re hoping is going to be faintly visible to the naked eye at the end of January.
“Right now you need binoculars to see it but it is coming closer to the Earth and in late January and early February we could have a comet in the sky that people can see without binoculars. That’s a very rare occurrence that only happens a few times a decade.”
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Watch this Government open everything for US Tourists whilst giving their own citizens nothing but lockdowns for over a year. Money over everything is their policy
@IrelandForChange: if that was the case they wouldn’t have had loxkdowns and people on PUP. Your comment does not make sense.
@Gerry McNally: think PUP was designed to make sure people abided by lockdown, cos I’m pretty sure not too many would have stayed in lockdown for so long if we had everyone on basic 203 euro a week social plus the massive domino effect of loans and mortgages being missed and increased poverty would have had society going tits up very fast….probably the only good thing these lot did in power was bringing in PUP
@IrelandForChange: silly comment
@IrelandForChange: Love your Twitter bio ” common sense and self responsibility dont exist anymore….” and then goes on a rant about the government. Clueless
@Tarraing Mo Liathróidí: I agree, however the longer lockdown went on, the pup should have been increased. It’s a huge paycut for a lot of people who have been forced out of work through no fault of their own. The government have done nothing to help these people, Mortgage, bills etc should have been frozen. It’s gone on too long and people are struggling.
So the doors gonna be closed for us leaving Ireland for holidays to the likes of the US even if we are fully vaccinated but open to tourists vaccinated from the states coming in…..ya makes loads of sense sure
@Tarraing Mo Liathróidí: It will be open for us to leave under the Digital Green Cert from June. Government don’t have a choice
@Sean Lucas: Simon Covney said yesterday that they wouldn’t signing up in June to the green cert. Maybe later in the summer. So they will stick with the EU when they want and disagree when they want…
@Sean Lucas: I wouldn’t hold my breath, they will do all they can to have people do the staycations at home till at least September….we tend to only do what the EU asks as long as it doesn’t bother us too much like VRT and the rest
Ah the EU, all for freedom of movement between its member countries and now also with the US. And yet, couldn’t care less about “freedom of movement” for people within the Unions individual countries and the travel restrictions imposed on its citizens. President Ursela, you’re a star. Two thumbs up for you too.
@John Egan: Why should the EU care about inter county travel in Ireland? If it did come out against restrictions on travel within Ireland then many people would be complaining of overreach by the EU. It’s our own decision to carry out Holohan’s instructions and there is no point blaming anyone else.
@John Egan: You know full well that this forum would be full of people claiming the EU have no respect national autonomy if they did that.
@Ciaran O’Mara: beat me to it.
@Ciaran O’Mara: “if they had come out against restrictions” but they haven’t, the haven’t said anything about them, not just for Ireland, for all its members. They’ve tried prohibiting Ireland from controlling entries from EU countries (rightly or wrongly) and yet the people in Ireland couldn’t travel further than approx 80-90 km?
@John Egan: the EU has no role whatsover in the internal travel restrictions we impose on ourselves.
@Ciaran O’Mara: no just on everything else regarding covid so…
@John Egan: no, we follow NPHET and the HSE for health advice, the government sets our rolling lockdowns and the HSE oversees vaccine rollout. Individual member states set their own policy. Ireland could refuse US tourists if we wanted.
The EU oversees vaccine delivery because Ireland agreed to it, not much else.
@Cian Martin: ha you think if Ireland refused EU approved tourists they’d get away with it? Yeah right, won’t happen to find out anyway
@John Egan: forgive me if I am wrong but is Ireland not currently rejecting some EU “approved” tourists or indeed all tourists? Do travellers from France have to quarantine upon arrival? Do those with vaccination certs upon arrival from some listed countries still not have to quarantine? I know some vaccinated travellers do quarantine in hotel and some do quarantine at home and I believe the EU expresses concern at Ireland’s quarantine rules and so I ask why you think Ireland might not have the choice to continue to implement it’s own rules?
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: yes, which was/is being immediately challenged by the EU. We’ll see if Ireland will still implement EU countries quarantine once the EU’s vaccination cert comes into use.
The game is up Mehole, in a few weeks time Newry will be the new Temple Bar and there’s not a thing your boss Tony Holohan can do about it, you know your bad when bungling Boris has wiped your eye
@Paul O Neill: boris and Co have really showed up so many, I know loads can say he handled covid bad at the start but he’s made up for it in a big way and the North is gonna reap the reward with so many heading north especially come the June Bank holiday weekend and beyond
@Tarraing Mo Liathróidí: by all accounts he brought in a successful venture capitalist from the private sector to run the sourcing of vaccines and striking the deals with Pharma companies, simple and successful. He also decided if enough are vaccinated and hospitals are safe open up, doctors are only advising and not taking control like here. Crowds back in stadiums yesterday whilst Tony won’t allow Euros in June and keeping pubs closed all summer, the obedient scared sheep here need to wake up now.
@Paul O Neill: oh we really dropped the ball on the euros and then the clown MM coming out blaming uefa, when we were told that unless fans were allowed in we couldn’t hold onto the games. Did he seriously think we could host empty stadium games while every other host country had some fans at their games like we were gonna get special treatment….I mean come on like
@Paul O Neill: if we are to succeed in totally destroying the economy, we could not contemplate hosting a tournament that would generate economic activity!
@Tarraing Mo Liathróidí: Mehole is worse than even Enda or Biffo and they were embarrassing
India is still not on the MHQ list – there are still flights arriving with Indian Nationals travelling to Ireland, via Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
It’s been weeks that we have known India was a growth area and European countries which are on the list have significant decrease in their numbers but no action has been taken
@astragirltweets: The quarantine list has nothing to do with nationality. It applies equally to Irish citizens that have visited high risk countries.
@astragirltweets: plus both Abu Dhabi & Dubai are on the list so even if someone from India is on a flight they’ll still have to go to MHQ!
@David Fields: or they could fly a different route. Same applies after they put countries on hotel quarantine. French now just come through Spain etc. MHQ does not work for EU countries in particular and is purely populism regardless of your views on it
@astragirltweets: The MHQ list isn’t about public health, it’s about FF/FG brown envelopes making money for those hotels that they’ve shut closed for the last 9 months
@astragirltweets: They are reluctant to impose quarantine on Indian nationals because so many of them are working in Ireland in multinationals and big-tech.They possibly make up a majority of the tech staff in Google for example.
As we know if big tech asks our Government to jump……
Holiday in September looking more likely by the day! The feeling of having something to look forward to again is amazing
The US announced yesterday that they would allow their citizens travel to and from Europe if they could provide proof of vaccination, Ursula just following the US lead.
Great news and a common sense approach
If only there was US flights into ORK, SNN and NOC to help all the staff and the airports get back on their feet… But no. Especially SNN, all the US carriers are gone, pulled out. Doesn’t look like Aer Lingus will return with their BOS or JFK routes either because those aircrafts are gone to the UK
What about vaccinating EU citizens?
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has said “Because one thing is clear: All 27 member states will accept, unconditionally, all those who are vaccinated with vaccines that are approved by EMA.”
Irish citizen who’s Spanish holiday for May has just been cancelled (again) says “NO”.
Thats good but its nice knowing that barely anyone in Ireland will be able to take advantage of the green cert because of the bad vaccine rollout
@Dawid Grzybowski:
And getting worse by the day
Sure 80% by June , err July , err Aug …… err err maybe 2023 , flights abroad. Maybe by 2023 , assuming there are actually flights left to and from Ireland , Devs vision of a closed poverty stricken society dancing at the crossroads ( an outdoor activity !!!) getting closer by the day.
Loads of MAGA caps and báníns spotted getting of buses in Killarney in the height of it all last summer so not much will have changed……
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