Tag Archives: Venus

In the Sky This Week – February 2, 2021

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This entry is part 181 of 184 in the series In the Sky This Week

From now through next week, there will be an astounding mega-conjunction of Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn in the in the east-southeastern sky morning sky. The planets change positions quite a bit each morning, with Venus dancing with Saturn on Feb. 5th and 6th and then with Jupiter on Feb. 11th. Mercury joins the planet party on Feb. 8th, gaining altitude each morning until it appears much higher above the horizon than the other three planets by Feb 16th. This mega-conjunction would be even better if it was visible to us humans living on the planet, but that pesky atmosphere makes the planets invisible to all but the most determined daytime planet hunters (and I do happen to know some of those). On Feb. 16th Venus, Jupiter and Saturn are all aligned along the plane of the Ecliptic… and then there’s Mercury – hanging out high above Jupiter. Seen from this vantage point, Mercury’s orbital inclination is highly evident! Maybe … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – January 19, 2021

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This entry is part 180 of 184 in the series In the Sky This Week

I know quite a few astrophotographers! During online meetings of the Warren Astronomical Society, members show astrophotos they’ve recently captured and processed; even their “bad ones” are awe-inspiring! Here’s a beautiful pic by Adrian Bradley: A couple of these astrophotographers regularly livestream their telescope sessions for the public to view: Doug Bock & Dr. Brian Ottum. A few results from the Virtual open house of the Warren Astronomical Society on November 28, 2020NGC 7635 Bubble nebula, M 15 Globular Cluster, M 42 the Orion Nebula, NGC 7380. pic.twitter.com/cXBkgJPdfq — Doug Bock (@Mars_1956) December 1, 2020 All three of these astrophotographers that I just shamelessly plugged helped with the Astronomy at the Beach event last September. Venus appears very low above the southeastern horizon before sunrise – appearing lower each morning. Jupiter and Saturn are now lost in the glare of the Sun. Mercury is visible in the southwestern sky at dusk – appearing slightly higher each evening. Mars appears high … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – January 12, 2021

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This entry is part 179 of 184 in the series In the Sky This Week

Venus appears very low above the southeastern horizon before sunrise. Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury continue to form a triple conjunction in the southwestern sky at dusk – Saturn may be a bit difficult to see; Mercury appears slightly higher above the horizon each evening. Mercury appears in the southwestern sky at dusk – the Moon joins Mercury on the evening of Jan 15th. Mars appears high in the southern sky after sunset; the constellations Orion, Taurus and Canis Major appear lower and to the east of Mars. If you look almost straight up at 3:00 AM, you can sky-hop from the Big Dipper to Arcturus and Spica.   The Moon is a waning crescent – visible low to the east before sunrise. The new Moon occurs on Jan. 13th – the Moon will be hidden in the glare of the Sun. After Jan. 13th, the Moon will be a waxing crescent – visible toward the southwest in early evening. If … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – December 22, 2020

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This entry is part 176 of 184 in the series In the Sky This Week

One of the more positive aspects of 2020 has been several successful sample return missions: the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) HAYABUSA2 mission has successfully returned 5.4 grams of rocks and dust from the asteroid Ryugu, the China National Space Administration’s ChangE5 mission returned 1,731 grams of lunar regolith, and NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission’s sample head was overflowing with material taken from the surface of asteroid Bennu. OSIRIS-REx is due back at Earth in 2023. These missions have me seriously excited, and I hope they are the beginning of a near-future filled with sample return missions! After yesterday’s “Great Conjunction,” Jupiter and Saturn will move slightly away from each other every night – they’ll be great observing targets for that new telescope you got for Christmas! When I created this image, I saw a pattern of stars above Jupiter and Saturn that I did not recognize – I clicked on one and found it was a string of #Starlink satellites. Mars, … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – December 15, 2020

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This entry is part 175 of 184 in the series In the Sky This Week

Jupiter and Saturn appear in the southwestern sky at dusk, getting closer getting closer to the Dec. 21 conjunction with each passing day! The waxing crescent Moon joins the pair of planets on Dec. 16 & 17. Venus appears in the southeastern predawn sky all week, getting closer to the horizon with each passing day. Mars, Uranus, the Pleiades star cluster and the bright star Aldebaran appear in the east-southeastern sky after sunset this week. The constellation Lyra, with the bright star Vega appear above the western horizon after sunset this week. The Moon is a waxing crescent- visible toward the southwest in early evening. The first quarter Moon occurs on Dec, 21st – visible high in the southern sky in early evening. If you click on the Moon image above, or click this link, you will go to NASA’s Moon Phase and Libration, 2020 page – it will show you what the Moon looks like right now. If you … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – November 24 2020

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This entry is part 174 of 184 in the series In the Sky This Week

Jupiter and Saturn appear in the southwestern sky at dusk, getting closer together with each passing evening. Mercury and Venus appear in the east-southeastern predawn sky all week – Mercury may be difficult to spot this week being so near the horizon. Mars appears high in the southeastern sky after sunset – the waxing gibbous Moon appears near Mars on Nov. 25th The constellations Orion and Taurus appear in the eastern sky a few hours after sunset, and move across the southern sky to appear in the western sky before sunrise. The Moon is a waxing gibbous – visible to the southeast in early evening, and up for most of the night. The full Moon occurs on Nov. 30th – it rises at sunset, is visible high in the sky around midnight, and is visible all night. If you click on the Moon image above, or click this link, you will go to NASA’s Moon Phase and Libration, 2020 page … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – November 17, 2020

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This entry is part 173 of 184 in the series In the Sky This Week

Mercury appears with Venus in the eastern predawn sky all week; both planets appear a bit closer to the horizon each morning – by next week, Mercury will be much closer to the horizon. Mars and Uranus continue to appear high in the eastern sky after sunset. If you have a large enough ‘scope, you can see Uranus: This is my shot before scaling it up to the closeup. Uranus is only 15 pixels wide. I took a lot of creative interpretations of the data to get the details you see in the final image, so I would consider it more an artistic rendering than a photo. pic.twitter.com/HbbjhxULFH — Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) November 16, 2020 Jupiter and Saturn continue to appear in the south-southwestern sky at dusk, and setting in the southwest a few hours after sunset; from Nov 17-20, the waxing crescent Moon joins the pair of planets. My wife told me that she had her astronomy students look … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – November 10, 2020

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This entry is part 172 of 184 in the series In the Sky This Week

Mars appears high in the eastern sky after sunset, and it appears high in the southern sky at midnight. Mercury appears with Venus in the eastern predawn sky all week – the planets are joined by the waning crescent Moon on the mornings of Nov. 12th and 13th. The conjunction of the two planets, the Moon and the star Spica on the morning of Nov. 13th is likely to be distracting to drivers travelling eastward – drive safe! Jupiter and Saturn appear in the south-southwestern sky at dusk – still great observing targets, but look quick – you only have a couple hours before they set in the southwest. I was wondering what those 2 stars were I was seeing through the skylight as I was making my coffee at 3:00 AM… “I’ll bet they are Castor and Pollux in the constellation Gemini.” Called it! 🙂 I really miss having people look through my telescope and say “Oh WOW!” or … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – November 3, 2020

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This entry is part 171 of 184 in the series In the Sky This Week

The sample head overflowing with bits of asteroid Bennu has been safely stowed in the return capsule of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft – I can stop waving my hands frantically and breathe a bit easier! Now, I have to hurry-up-and-wait for launch windows and the time-consuming interplanetary Hohmann orbital mechanics before that sample is returned to Earth in 2023.Like Douglas Adams said: “Space is Big!” I REALLY want a piece of Bennu; I asked Dolores Hill several questions about a possible privately-funded sample return mission with a larger sample head. Dolores said “A huge sampling head may or may not be helpful. If ours had been too big, it would have made it harder to locate a large enough, safe site. A larger head would be heavier – require more gas to flow through it, etc. But, who knows, the engineers know how to scale up. Almost anything is possible given enough resources. Regarding paying for itself…”In my opinion, it would … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – October 27, 2020

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This entry is part 170 of 184 in the series In the Sky This Week

I’m a volunteer ambassador for NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission – I can not tell you how excited I am about the recent successful, maybe overly successful, sample acquisition from the surface of asteroid Bennu! The sample head is full of rocks an dust, and apparently a large rock has prevented a mylar flap from sealing the sample head, and some smaller rocks are escaping! The sample head should be safely stowed away today  – that can’t happen soon enough for me! The pandemic has prevented me from doing in-person lectures about the mission, but I’ve been covering the mission in these weekly posts, and I was able to book Dolores Hill from the OSIRIS-REx mission to speak at the Astronomy at the Beach event – so I don’t feel too awful about my lack of lecturing… The red giant star Arcturus competes with Venus for the title of “morning star” in the eastern predawn sky … Venus wins! … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – October 20, 2020

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This entry is part 169 of 184 in the series In the Sky This Week

Venus appears in the eastern predawn sky all week; from my location, the ISS appears with Venus at 5:30 AM on Oct. 23rd. If you’d like to see if the ISS will be over your position, you can use the tracker on the Heavens-Above website, or any number of smartphone apps. The Moon dances with Saturn and Jupiter from Oct. 20-23 in the southern sky after sunset. Here’s a close-up of the conjunction on Oct. 22nd: Mars is at opposition and very bright in the eastern sky after sunset; Mars is visible all night long, and I’ve seen some spectacular images taken of it! Uranus is almost in the center between Mars and the Pleiades star cluster. I watched #Mars for over 4 hours last night, and put together hundreds of thousands of images to create this animation of it’s rotation Credit 🔭 by James McCarthy pic.twitter.com/4zbfpccYeS — Domenico (@AvatarDomy) October 13, 2020 The Moon is a waxing crescent – … Continue reading →

In the Sky This Week – October 13, 2020

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This entry is part 168 of 184 in the series In the Sky This Week

Venus appears in the eastern predawn sky all week; the waning crescent Moon appears near Venus on the mornings of Oct. 13th and 14th. Saturn and Jupiter appear in the southern sky after sunset. Mars is at opposition – when it and the Earth are in-line with the Sun; this is also when Mars is closest to the Earth in their orbits, so now is a great time to go observe Mars! Here’s a close-up of the Mars opposition: The Moon is a waning crescent – visible low to the east before sunrise. The new Moon occurs on Oct. 16th – the Moon will not be visible at this time… unless it get’s smacked by an asteroid… The Moon returns to the southwestern sky at dusk as a waxing crescent by early next week. If you click on the Moon image above, or click this link, you will go to NASA’s Moon Phase and Libration, 2020 page – it will … Continue reading →