Event Date: June 10th
Time: 5:40 AM
Brief
Venus is a very "young" crescent right now, as it begins the reversal of what we saw it do for most of the last 9 months: waning during that time span, and then disappear into the glare of the Sun until it transited our star. At the time of transit, if you had a chance to view it with safe equipment, you would have seen the side of Venus that was not illuminated by Sunlight. Of course, the side that was, faced the Sun. Now, as the planet is just barely visible before Sunrise in optical aid this week rising in the east-northeast, it will start to wax gradually and brighten a little more each day. Unfortunately with the Sun's glare, it will not be easily visible to the eye for about two more weeks, and even if before that, deep in atmospheric pollution. Take a look here, as while being a little more south of the Sun, it rises only twenty two minutes earlier.
Time: 5:40 AM
Brief
Venus is a very "young" crescent right now, as it begins the reversal of what we saw it do for most of the last 9 months: waning during that time span, and then disappear into the glare of the Sun until it transited our star. At the time of transit, if you had a chance to view it with safe equipment, you would have seen the side of Venus that was not illuminated by Sunlight. Of course, the side that was, faced the Sun. Now, as the planet is just barely visible before Sunrise in optical aid this week rising in the east-northeast, it will start to wax gradually and brighten a little more each day. Unfortunately with the Sun's glare, it will not be easily visible to the eye for about two more weeks, and even if before that, deep in atmospheric pollution. Take a look here, as while being a little more south of the Sun, it rises only twenty two minutes earlier.
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Detailed
As Venus is still moving quickly in retrograde motion, that means two good things for us as viewers: (1) the planet emerges from the glare of the Sun and by month's end, much easier to see. (2) despite Venus moving a little further south of the Sun each day, we are at a point along the ecliptic shown above, that the Sun is almost finished moving north. Therefore, Venus doesn't have that far south to move either.
Also in the eastern sky during the next several days, we can observe Jupiter to Venus and the Sun's upper right (west), as it rises about four minutes earlier each morning. While it is now starting to become a better dawn target, Venus' retrograde means that it will get closer with much slower moving Jupiter, which is moving the other direction in prograde at a good rate. As a result, the two will have another impressive conjunction as they did March 13th. They will not be as high as then, and a little further apart, yet still worth noting given their apparent magnitudes. Even more attractive, will be these two in trio with the only other celestial body brighter than them before Sunrise: the Moon! Look forward to next week, as the Moon wanes to a crescent and comes almost directly in between the two planets. I know...tease tease!
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