Explanation:

Sunday, the sky seemed to smile over much of planet Earth. Visible the world over was an unusual superposition of our Moon and the planets Venus and Jupiter. Pictures taken at the right time show a crescent Moon that appears to be a smile when paired with the planetary conjunction of seemingly nearby Jupiter and Venus. Pictured above is the scene as it appeared from Mt. Wilson Observatory overlooking Los Angeles, California, USA after sunset on 2008 November 30. Highest in the sky and farthest in the distance is the planet Jupiter. Significantly closer and visible to Jupiter's lower left is Venus, appearing through Earth's atmospheric clouds as unusually blue. On the far right, above the horizon, is our Moon, in a waxing crescent phase. Thin clouds illuminated by the Moon appear unusually orange. Sprawling across the bottom of the image are the hills of Los Angeles, many covered by a thin haze, while LA skyscrapers are visible on the far left. The conjunction of Venus and Jupiter will continue to be visible toward the west after sunset during much of this month. Hours after the taking of this image, however, the Moon approached the distant duo, briefly eclipsed Venus, and then moved on.

Image Date: 2008:11:30 19:08:26

:)

same image but larger:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0812/happyla_jurasevich_big.jpg

From what I'm hearing, this is a fairly rare/special alignment, as it likely won't happen again for at least 50 years

A superb image!

Fake, fake, fake....used a Southern hemisphere image didn't we....

looks like smog to me..

Yeah, i saw that on Sat night in Gladstone, Queensland. Didn't realise what it was until now but remember thinking it was pretty damn cool.

Im not at home so i cant get onto my star chart programm. I have to say that this looks like my sunset and im in south africa? Fake? according to my knowledge it must be

Its not fake. I live in Pennsylvania and I saw the same thing in my night sky last Sunday.

not fake I saw it in Lubbock TX

I live further North and East than this (Edmonton, Canada). I took this picture from my front door (looking West) on Monday December 1st, 2008 at sunset. I could be mistaken but shouldn't the alignment of the moon etc be the same...

beautiful in LA at night

see if it was me seeing that id just presume the two planets were just stars!

this is a fake photo, the moon actually appeared above Jupiter and Venus

Even at night Los Angeles looks like the polluted hell-hole that it is

That was fog in LA that night, not pollution (though we do get our fair share of that, thanks in part to China).

My 14 year old daughter pulled me outside to look at it! we live in Texas and it was gorgeous!

u guys are almost all dumb, this is not a fake photo. it is 100% real. the moon does not always have to be "above" or "below" venus and jupiter, as the moon does move around the earth. also, i took the same picture!

light pollution

the moon appeared both above and below and for all you people saying that can't happen man are you dumb

Beautiful? look at that light! how do you think thats beautiful? think of how much more beautiful it would be if you could see other stars around it. if you could acctually see the night sky! this disgusts me! how can man kind destroy the beauty of the dark just because they are afraid of the dark.

I saw it in TN so it's real
amazing but i agree, i wish we could see the stars

hey now Anonymous 22

how are you supposed to become a washed up musician or whore yourself out after your acting career crashes and burns if its pitch black outside?

shop

6 anon, you're an idiot! Go look outside!

it was clearer in Manila and the stars, moon were much closer. It really looked like a smiling face. the sky was really dark and clear that evening, around 6pm MNL Time

This is a fantastic photo, LA isnt always smoggy, it is foggy at times.

it's beautiful.

I saw this from home, except they were all a bit closer, and I said to myself, "I wish I had a decent camera rig, that would make a great picture." I'm glad someone who did had the same idea.

i'm surprised you could see it with all of the pollution out there!

beautifull. the smog makes it magical.

i noticed somebody said L.A's smog is 'thanks in part to china' how long has LA had smog problems? fix the attitude and your smog will go away.

Yup, most of the smog in LA is from China. Directly imported. Man....

All of you that think it's fake you're obviously retards. Venus and Jupiter are visible through out December and won't be aligned like this for another 50 years. Also you need to look during a clear sky not the gray blanket with your x-ray asses. )

I go to school in Pomona, which is right outside of LA. It would make sense that this was talken from Mount Wilson, because the moon was sort of to the right of both planets that night. The one thing is that looking at LA, it looks as though the picture is taken looking out west (if taken from Wilson, it would be looking east). If you are traveling East, the 101 would be running through LA on the left side of it, and I see the freeway on the right side (which would mean that this picture was taken looking West, or taken what would seem would be closer to Pomona). If thats true, the moon and planets are on the wrong side.... Im confused...

NOT FAKE! I SEE IT EVERY NIGHT IN LAS CRUCES, NM

you should see this in turkey , venus and jupiter were very closed to moon

smog in LA is from China?

It is no big secret that China's smog travels over here. Actually it is a secret to environmentalist who want to blame America for the waste of the world and the depletion of the ozone layer and anything else they can use to get control/money out of people.

SHOPPED

"Actually it is a secret to environmentalist who want to blame America for the waste of the world and the depletion of the ozone layer and anything else they can use to get control/money out of people."

AHHHHH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA... Thanks for that, needed a good laugh.

It would be difficult to photograph stars over LA because of the light contamination.

i saw this from the 210 on sunday night. the moon and planets were brilliant. i was going west through pasadena.

I JUST SAW THIS ON A NASA PRINT.

I thought planets closer to the sun than our own were only visible at sunset.

that is fcken sick seen that much smog that should disgust you but most people are like wow thats rare to see in the sky the moon venus and jupiter who gives a sh*it look at WTF were doing to our world and all you morons care about is Awwwwwww look so pretty wow............simple mind creatures you are pull your head out of your ass and take alook around you open you eyes and look at what we have done

i am in southern california and this isnt fake you could see this in the sky for almost a week . It was amazing.

Definitely NOT fake... it was in many media outlets the day of and the days after.

This is NOT fake. Im from INDIA and i saw it Dec 1st.
The next few days it looked like upside down sad smiley!

and still u jackass do not see the point that this picture has

It's not fake at all, I saw it in Dubai on the night of 1st December and I took a few photos of it. So save your breaths people who say it's fake.

bueno como estan espero que bien pues voy a poner una foto mia saludes bye

i saw this in Arthur North Dakota too!

Nice picture, but it is really two and the post isn't factual. I took a similar picture in Flagstaff, AZ on the same night (see image) - less than 1000 miles from LA. The position of the moon and the planets is reversed this is not one photo. It takes the moon 28 DAYS to appear to move in a circle around the Earth - on any night it would seem to move WITH the planets to a casual observer, so the post about the moon eclipsing the planets is not correct. In fact, the moon was moving away from them that night.

One last try to post the image...

I seen the same kind of thing from where I live in northern ontario canada. It was very intriquing and I couldn't wait to show my friends but the moon was situated above the planets and the following nights the planets appeared to have moved away from the moon or the moon moved further away from the planets. Pretty cool! It's real.

VERY CUTE

http://www.ezzal.com/

Do people really breathe that stuff? Wow, I'll stay in the midwest.

wow number 21 is a jackass

who the hell cares!!!!!!!!!!

helios

Wow, what a majestic picture!

I saw it from the UK, and it was similar to the photo for about a week, although it varied a bit from day to day. At its best it formed a perfect 'smiley face' with the three objects closer together than in the above photo. I can't remember the date but it was well publicised on TV and in the newspapers. Definitely not fake, but I can see how someone might think it was. If either the original poster of the photo or the person commenting was one day wrong on when they thought their own photo was taken, then the arrangement would be quite different. The moon moves quite a bit in 24 hours... In this particular case there was no need to fake it - it was predicted and actually happened so what would be the point? Millions of people must have seen it. Perhaps the unbelievers should occasionally turn off their PCs and take a trip into the real world and see things for themselves, instead of second-hand on YouTube etc.