Nature Hub

         From - BBC World News       By  - Deborah Nicholls-Lee       Edited by - Amal Udawatta The Royal Collection Enterprises Limited 2024/ Royal Collection Trust Raphael's The Three Graces (c1517-18) (Credit: The Royal Collection Enterprises Limited 2024/ Royal Collection Trust) How a rarely-seen drawing of the Three Graces by Raphael reveals the era's ideas about nudity, modesty, shame – and the artist's genius. It's part of an exhibition, Drawing the Italian Renaissance – at The King's Gallery, Buckingham Palace – of drawings from 1450 to 1600, the biggest of its kind ever shown in the UK. A wandering  lobster  and a sturdy  ostrich  feature among the 150 chalk, metalpoint and ink drawings on show at  Drawing The Italian Renaissance , at the King's Gallery, Buckingham Palace. Created by Renaissance giants such as  Leonardo da Vinci ,  Michelangelo ,  Raphael  and  Titian ,...

  From - Sky & Telescope  By - Bob King  Edited by - Amal Udawatta     Jupiter gleams in Taurus northeast of Aldebaran and the Hyades above the figure of Orion. The brilliant planet is unmistakable in the eastern sky at nightfall, shining at magnitude –2.8 with a disk 48.2″ across. Bob King I can't resist Jupiter's pull and I'm only half joking. Venus may surpass it in brightness, but at magnitude –2.8, Jupiter makes the more dazzling impression this season because of altitude and visibility in a dark sky. On December 7th the gas giant arrives at opposition and holds court from sunset till sunrise. Pinned between the horns of Taurus, the Bull, the mighty planet basks in the glittery company of the Hyades and Pleiades star clusters at the ear-popping declination of +22°. The last time it was this close, this big, and this bright was in November 2023. Binoculars will show Jupiter as a disk surrounded by up to four moons depending on their proximity to the...