After several days of grey and gloom there was an amazing sunset in Cardiff Bay tonight – a gradual change from blue to black in the sky colour, but most amazing of all was that two planets were easily visible.
In the photo you can see Venus to the lower right (almost in the centre of the frame) and Jupiter above and to the left. Venus is currently about 1.09AU (astronomical units) away – that’s about 101,321,918 miles! Jupiter is about 5.66AU away – that’s about 526,130,324 miles!!
Click on the photo for a bigger view.
Jupiter, the fifth planet from the Sun, is the largest planet in our Solar System, whilst Venus is the brightest object in the sky apart from the Moon. Venus, the second planet from the Sun, is a very similar size to Earth, whilst Jupiter is about 11 times the diameter of the Earth. Even though Jupiter primarily consists of gas its mass is about 2½ times the mass of all of the other planets put together!
The large building just right of centre is the St David’s Hotel.
An amazing view.