Venus, the Moon, and the Pleiades converge on March 27th–the prelude to an even prettier conjunction on March 28th. Photo credit: Ruslan Merzlyakov of Nykøbing Mors, Denmark. [photo gallery]
Tonight, Venus, the crescent Moon and the Pleiades will form a beautiful triangle in the western sunset sky. The event kicks off a slow-motion conjunction between Venus and the Pleiades that will grow even more beautiful in the nights ahead. Visit Spaceweather.com for sky maps and observing tips.
The alignment of the planets, as seen just before sunrise throughout the week. As the week progresses, the Moon will pass through this view of the sky.(Credit: Roen Kelly/Astronomy)
Five planets adorn the morning sky this week — the same quintet of “wanderers” (Mercury to Saturn) our ancient ancestors recognized as being different from the background stars. Head outside about 45 minutes before sunrise and you will see the solar system objects spread out across approximately 110°.
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The planets Jupiter and Venus will appear 22 minutes of arc apart, which is a measurement used in astronomy to track the size and positions of objects in the night sky.
For comparison, the full moon is 30 minutes of arc across.
A small telescope or a pair of binoculars will easily resolve the two planets, and show them in the same field of view.
Venus is now just over 56 million miles (90 million km) from Earth and Jupiter about 10 times further at 560 million miles (900 million km).
But Jupiter is also 11.8 times bigger than Venus, which means that the two planets will appear as a similar size.
Venus Jupiter graphic.jpg
Photograph by Yuri Beletsky
This weekend, the planet and the star cluster will cross paths only 2o apart. Yuri Beletsky photographed the Seven Sisters +1 on April 9th, just one day before closest approach, over the Las Campanas observatory in Chile
Consider it a mixture of dissimilar things. The Pleiades are elusive. They’re best seen out of the corner of your eye, a pretty little surprise that pops out of the night sky when you’re staring elsewhere. Venus is just the opposite. Dazzling, bright enough to cast faint shadows on a moonless night, it beams down from the heavens and grabs you when you’re not even looking.
In the nights ahead, look west after sunset. Venus pops out of the twilight long before nightfall. As the sky fades to black, you can see the Pleiades, too. The nights of closest approach are Friday, April 10th, and Saturday, April 11th. Bright Venus makes for a stunning contrast against the pinpoint beauty of the star cluster. Observing tip: For maximum contrast, use binoculars.
“Venus and Jupiter were easy targets this morning, but the thin (4%) crescent Moon was a different matter!” says Lawrence. “It was almost invisible in the red glow of sunrise.”
Did you oversleep on Saturday? No problem. Another “celestial triangle” is in the offing. Right now the Moon is passing the sun en route to the evening sky. OnAugust 31st it will join Mars and Saturn in the constellation Libra. Visible after sunset, the new triangle won’t be quite as luminous as the old one, because Mars + Saturn is not as bright as Venus + Jupiter, but the formaton will still be very pretty. Mark your calendar for the end of the month and, until then, browse the gallery to see what you missed.
Taken by Gary Colwell on August 17, 2014 @ Burlington Ontario Canada
Set your alarm for dawn! Venus and Jupiter are converging for a spectacular conjunction in the early morning sky. At closest approach on the morning of August 18th, the two brightest planets in the solar system will be only 0.2o apart. This is what they looked like one day early, August 17th, from the Canadian side of Lake Ontario
“It was a beautiful conjunction in the pre-dawn sky,” says photographer Gary Colwell. “And it will get even better on Monday morning.”
To see the show, find a place with a good view of the north-northeastern horizon. No telescope is required. Jupiter and Venus are bright enough to see with the naked eye even from light polluted cities. In fact, as Colwell’s photo shows, you can see them even after the sun begins to brighten the dawn. A tight conjunction of Venus and Jupiter framed by twilight blue is a great way to start the day.
For more information, see this video from NASA.
VENUS AT INFERIOR CONJUNCTION:
Today, Jan. 11th, Venus is at inferior conjunction. That means it is passing almost directly between Earth and the sun. With its nightside facing Earth (almost perfectly), Venus looks like an incredibly slender crescent. This morning in Targoviste, Romania, amateur astronomer Maximilian Teodorescu photographed Venus only 5 degrees from the sun
“Taking extreme care not to point any unfiltered optics at the sun, I started to look for Venus through my 11-inch Celestron telescope,” says Teodorescu. “The thin but very large crescent suddenly appeared into the field of view. It was surreal to watch the boiling atmospheric arc of the planet just above the sun in plain day. My wife immortalized the moment by taking a panoramic view from our clear-sky location.”
Observing Venus through a telescope can be dangerous. Even a quick inadvertent glimpse of magnified light from the nearby sun can cause serious eye damage. Anthony J. Cook of the Griffith Observatory has some advice for observers: “I have observed Venus at conjunction, but only from within the shadow of a building, or by adding a mask to the front end of the telescope to fully shadow the optics from direct sunlight. This is tricky with a refractor or a catadioptric, because the optics start at the front end of the tube. Here at Griffith Observatory, I rotate the telescope dome to make sure the lens of the telescope is shaded from direct sunlight, even through it means that the lens will be partially blocked when aimed at Venus. With our Newtonian telescope, I add a curved cardboard mask at the front end of the tube to shadow the primary mirror.”
Around the world, many people are applying these techniques to photograph Venus as it passes by the sun. Browse the gallery to see their amazing results
A NASA spacecraft has revealed an unprecedented view of Saturn from space, showing the entire gas giant backlit by the sun with several of its moons and all but one of its rings, as Earth, Venus and Mars all appear as pinpricks light in the background.
The spectacular image, unveiled Tuesday (Nov. 12), is actually a mosaic of 141 wide-angle images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft taken in natural color, which mimics how human eyes might see the ringed planet.
http://news.yahoo.com/saturn-earth-shine-amazing-photo-nasa-probe-220503153.html
The crescent Moon is gliding by Venus, forming a pretty duo in the sunset sky. Last night, Brian Emfinger photographed the two bright bodies over Little Rock, Arkansas:
“The Moon and Venus provided a excellent backdrop to the Little Rock skyline,” says Emfinger.
It’s going to happen again tonight. Venus and the Moon are so bright, they pop out of the twilight long before the sunset sky fades to black. If you go out to look, be alert for Earthshine–a ghostly glow illuminating the crescent’s dark terrain. Earthshine is sunlight reflected from our own planet onto the Moon. A crescent Moon with Earthshine framed by twilight blue is one of the most beautiful sights in the heavens.Sky maps: Oct. 7, 8.
English: Conjunction of Venus and the Moon, illuminated by Earthshine. Taken by Claude Schneider, May 19th 2007 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Oblique view of the phases of Venus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
