On Friday March 26th the inner planet Venus will have moved into superior conjunction – on the opposite side of the Sun from the Earth. Venus will reappear on the east side of the Sun later next month and start becoming visible in the evening skies over the western horizon.
Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for monthly observing information, or here to return to bobs-spaces.
Monday morning and evening, January 11th, offer an opportunity for catching a pair of conjunctions. Low over the eastern horizon at sunrise is the 27.7-day old very thin waning crescent Moon about 3-4o from the inner planet Venus.
This could be a chance to see the Moon when it is about 24-hours from its new phase.
Low in the western horizon at sunset is the ongoing triple conjunction between Mercury, Jupiter, and Saturn. Monday evening will be the closest Mercury and Jupiter will be as Mercury continues moving eastward away from the two giant planets.
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Our Moon reaches perigee, (closest to Earth), for this orbit, on Saturday January 9th. At that time the Moon will be at a distance of 28.8 Earth diameters, 228,292 miles (367,400 km) from the Earth.
On the day of the perigee Moon the 25.5-day old thin waning crescent Moon will be over the eastern horizon an hour or so before the Sun rises. And just coming into view over the eastern horizon is the inner planet Venus.
Does our Moon actually go around the Earth as this graphic shows? From our perspective on the Earth the Moon appears to circle around the Earth. However, in reality, the Moon orbits the Sun together with the Earth*
*Click here to read my Scope on the Sky column “The Real Shape of the Moon’s Orbit”. (PDF)
Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for monthly observing information, or here to go to bobs-spaces.
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Over the next several mornings the inner planet Venus will be passing by the ‘Heart’ of Scorpius the Scorpion, the reddish star Antares. The closest the two will be is on the 23rd when Venus and Antares will be 5-6o from each other. A conjunction between Venus and Antares is a regular event in that both are near the ecliptic and will, at times during Venus’s orbit, appear close and other times not as close.
This animated graphic is set to 1-day intervals and shows the movement of Venus relative to Antares between December 20th to the 30th.
Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for monthly observing information, or here to return to bobs-spaces.
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Saturday morning December 12th the 27-day old thin waning crescent Moon will be about 3-4o from the inner planet Venus.
Despite the age and how thin the crescent Moon is the Moon still shines with an apparent 
magnitude of -9.8 compared with the -3.9 apparent magnitude of Venus. The two should make for good viewing through binoculars.
Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for monthly observing information, or here to return to bobs-spaces.
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This past month, November, the inner planets Mercury and Venus were very visible in the early morning skies before sunrise. Both of the planets were at or near their respective western elongation. Venus was there during August and Mercury reached its western elongation on November 10th.
What I wanted to capture was the daily change in the position of Venus as it passed the star Spica in Virgo the Harvest Maiden. Venus moves about 1.6o each day so its eastward motion should be obvious after a day or so. It was – it is!. Mercury, if you are wondering, moves about 4o each day.
Both inner planets were somewhere around their maximum separation from the Sun – as we see it the inner planet is to the right side of the Sun, or toward the west.
The series of pictures were taken from two locations near my house. One is from an empty lot near U.S. Highway 50 looking east. The other pictures are from somewhere along the street I live on! The first picture was taken at Legacy Park and includes the ISS orbiting over my location.
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Over the next few days the inner planet Venus will be moving eastward as it passes the blue-white star Spica in Virgo the Harvest Maiden. This animated graphic is set to 1-day intervals and shows the morning sky from November 16th to the 20th.
On Monday morning November 16th Venus will be the closest to Spica for a conjunction that has the two separated by about 3-4o. A few degrees, 13o, further east (lower) is the other inner planet Mercury.
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The waning crescent Moon, as it moves eastward toward new Phase on the 14th, passes by the two inner planets Venus and Mercury. Yesterday the Moon was west from the planets and after 24 hours of revolution the Moon has moved to between the two planets this morning.
Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for monthly observing information, or here to return to bobs-spaces.
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On Tuesday November 10th Mercury, the innermost planet, will reach its orbital position known as greatest western elongation at 19.1o. At that moment Mercury, the Sun, and the Earth, would be arranged in something close to approximating a right angle as this graphic shows. Even though it sounds confusing at western elongation for either Mercury or Venus the inner planet will be to the right of the Sun as we view them, meaning that at western elongation an inner planet rises in the east before the Sun rises. And at eastern elongation with the inner planet on the left side of the Sun the inner planet follows the Sun across the sky setting after the Sun sets.
From our perspective the orbits of Mercury and Venus appear to move from one side of the Sun to the other – out to the left (east) from the Sun to eastern elongation, then reverse and move westward (inferior conjunction) between the Earth and the Sun to western elongation. From there the inner planet moves eastward going behind the Sun (superior conjunction) and eventually reappearing on the eastern side of the Sun for an eastern elongation. Repeat over and over – do not stop!
There is a lot to see and a few things you cannot see on the morning of Mercury’s western elongation. Going by relative apparent magnitudes Mercury (-0.52), Venus (-3.99), Spica (0.96), are all easily visible as bright to very bright star-like objects. The 24-day old waning crescent Moon shines at a much brighter apparent magnitude of (-11.52).
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This morning opened up with a colorful sunrise as the background for the ISS as it orbited toward the southeast. High overhead toward the south was the near last quarter Moon brightening the sky in that direction. However this was not a morning for taking pictures of the Moon.
Right on time the ISS appeared over the northwest horizon and steadily moved past Polaris, the North Star, then past the Big Dipper’s Dipper heading toward the star Arcturus in Bootes the Herdsman. On its way toward the southeastern horizon the ISS went past Venus, Mercury and the star Spica in Virgo the Harvest Maiden.
While waiting and taking random pictures in different directions I managed to catch a Taurid Meteor!
Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for monthly observing information, or here to return to bobs-spaces.
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