Astronomy Picture of the Day ·

Moon, Mars, Venus, and Spica

The Astronomy Picture of the Day for December 4, 2002 is “Moon, Mars, Venus, and Spica,” an image. The picture is copyrighted by its creator (Credit & Copyright: Larry Koehn). The original explanation runs about 137 words.

Moon, Mars, Venus, and Spica
Credit & Copyright: Larry Koehn Copyrighted Shown from science.nasa.gov. Not hosted by OpenOrbit.

From the explanation

“Gliding toward today’s total eclipse of the Sun, the crescent Moon has been rising early, just before dawn. And as a prelude to its close solar alignment , the Moon also completed a lovely celestial triangle, closing with bright planets Mars and Venus on the morning of December 1.”

— APOD editors, December 4, 2002

Read the full explanation on science.nasa.gov

At a glance

Date
December 4, 2002
Type
Image
Credit
Credit & Copyright: Larry Koehn
Copyright
Copyrighted by the credited creator. Ask the copyright holder before reusing it.
Explanation length
About 137 words

All of December 2002 → · 2002 by month → · Full archive since 1995 →

Topics in this entry

The MoonThe SunVenusMarsEclipses

Topics are matched from words in the title and explanation.

On this day: December 4 in other years

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Source

Copy taken Oct 28, 2026, 2:39 AM EDT. The image and explanation belong to their creators. OpenOrbit is not affiliated with or endorsed by NASA.