Event Date: June 28th
Time: 5:00 AM
Brief
Let's take a look to see how that Venus/Jupiter pairing is doing: the separation between the two has come to a peak of 4.9º, which is 1.9º more than the 3.0º they had on March 13th. Despite that, and being seen lower towards the horizon, they are still an excellent sight. At 17% illuminated, Venus is closing in on its best magnitude again (currently -4.4). It was only less than two months ago when we last saw it at this crescent phase setting after the Sun. Now that it is rising before the Sun, we are seeing Venus go through the phases in the opposite direction. Jupiter (-2.0) also slowly brightens a little more each day as we catch up with it in orbit, yet not noticeably. We will see a more obvious increase for Jupiter this fall when it nears and reaches opposition,
The first image is a zoom-out of the two during the middle of nautical twilight. The Sun doesn't rise for about another 50 minutes following the time shown. Even when it does, try to spot the planets for a brief time while the sky is still of a low limiting magnitude; this changes as the Sun gets higher, making it more difficult to see both about 30 minutes later. Brighter Venus is at the bottom.
Time: 5:00 AM
Brief
Let's take a look to see how that Venus/Jupiter pairing is doing: the separation between the two has come to a peak of 4.9º, which is 1.9º more than the 3.0º they had on March 13th. Despite that, and being seen lower towards the horizon, they are still an excellent sight. At 17% illuminated, Venus is closing in on its best magnitude again (currently -4.4). It was only less than two months ago when we last saw it at this crescent phase setting after the Sun. Now that it is rising before the Sun, we are seeing Venus go through the phases in the opposite direction. Jupiter (-2.0) also slowly brightens a little more each day as we catch up with it in orbit, yet not noticeably. We will see a more obvious increase for Jupiter this fall when it nears and reaches opposition,
The first image is a zoom-out of the two during the middle of nautical twilight. The Sun doesn't rise for about another 50 minutes following the time shown. Even when it does, try to spot the planets for a brief time while the sky is still of a low limiting magnitude; this changes as the Sun gets higher, making it more difficult to see both about 30 minutes later. Brighter Venus is at the bottom.
Detailed
The next image is a zoom-in of the same planets, about 5x magnified. This is like looking at them in small binoculars, which are more ideal for the other two neat targets close to each. Venus actually, is seen among one of them: the Hyades Star Cluster, forming a "V" shape turned sideways when seen rising from our latitude, has its stars surrounding Venus. It is a very open, wide-field cluster, including several stars visible to the eye in darker skies. One of them labeled here however, Aldebaran, is not part of the cluster, as its brighter magnitude indicates. Also, see the Pleiades cluster above Jupiter, now easier to see further separated from the Sun. Venus is seen very close to a star in the Hyades: Delta1 Tauri (Hyadum II) is the star, seen at magnitude +3.4. Venus is close enough to the star to see both in a wide-field telescope.
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