Two nights ago was the closest approach of Venus and Jupiter in a conjunction, and despite the very rainy weather this summer the sky was actually clear enough just after sunset for me to get a few photos. Not entirely clear, mind you, but I think the ragged clouds drifting across the sky add to its effect.
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| Venus and Jupiter in conjunction. Captured with my Pixel 7 Pro. |
Venus is the brighter of the two bright lights on the right, with Jupiter on the right. After the Sun and Moon Venus and Jupiter are the third- and fourth-brightest objects in the sky, so their conjunction is particularly impressive. Above and to the left of them you can faintly see Messier 44, the Beehive Cluster in Cancer.
Last night we also had an earthquake just as I was dropping off to sleep of about magnitude 4.7, with an epicenter about 23 km to the east. I realize now that I haven't mentioned the larger earthquake (magnitude 6.0) which happened back on May 22nd over on the western side of the island. (The largest earthquake I've felt since the magnitude-6.2 tremor I felt within a month of moving back to Hilo in 2021.) Both of these earthquakes felt pretty long; it's always hard to estimate time during an earthquake, but I've lived through enough that I feel pretty confident that these were on the longer side of ones I've experienced. Neither produced any damage here thankfully, though the larger one did some damage on the western side of Hawaiʻi island.
According to the USGS the large one was fairly deep, at 22.6 km; deep enough that it likely wasn't volcano-related, but was instead due to the ocean crust buckling and adjusting to the weight of the island. Last night's was also pretty deep, at 39.2 km, so I wonder if it's simply the crust adjusting on this side in response. As I like to say, life's never boring when you live on a volcano in the middle of the Pacific ocean! A hui hou!
