Event Date: June 19th
Time: 5:30 AM
Brief
One of the best things about Venus and Jupiter's bright magnitudes, currently at -4.2 and -2.0 respectively, is that the glare of the Sun only affects them if they are too close to our star. As they separate themselves by even a small amount such as 20-25º, with only a fair geometry of the east-northeast sky for the morning, they become a little more visible. As mentioned a few days ago, Venus slowly waxes (6% this morning) while Jupiter will continue to slowly brighten noticeably every couple of months; it approaches opposition this fall. Along with the planets in this part of the sky, the 1st magnitude star Aldebaran is a little over 3º from Venus, with the soon-to-go-prograde bright planet to come closer to it by late June and early July. This shows in image one further down.
Detailed
On June 17th for the zoom-in image, I introduced the 3rd magnitude star Epsilon Tauri (EpTau), which Venus makes its closest angular approach with this morning. See the *second image for that, following the aforementioned zoom-out of the planet/star quartet. EpTau and Venus are close enough in that one that with Venus' brightness, the star will be figuratively overshadowed, with a separation of 0.2º.
Time: 5:30 AM
Brief
One of the best things about Venus and Jupiter's bright magnitudes, currently at -4.2 and -2.0 respectively, is that the glare of the Sun only affects them if they are too close to our star. As they separate themselves by even a small amount such as 20-25º, with only a fair geometry of the east-northeast sky for the morning, they become a little more visible. As mentioned a few days ago, Venus slowly waxes (6% this morning) while Jupiter will continue to slowly brighten noticeably every couple of months; it approaches opposition this fall. Along with the planets in this part of the sky, the 1st magnitude star Aldebaran is a little over 3º from Venus, with the soon-to-go-prograde bright planet to come closer to it by late June and early July. This shows in image one further down.
Detailed
On June 17th for the zoom-in image, I introduced the 3rd magnitude star Epsilon Tauri (EpTau), which Venus makes its closest angular approach with this morning. See the *second image for that, following the aforementioned zoom-out of the planet/star quartet. EpTau and Venus are close enough in that one that with Venus' brightness, the star will be figuratively overshadowed, with a separation of 0.2º.
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Venus spends a short amount of time in days near EpTau, and will come
back to it the same way that it will come back to Aldebaran. Whereas it
will come closer this time to Aldebaran however than the first time, it
will not come as close to EpTau as this time. As Venus reaches
each star, I will get further into angular separations. The stars and
Venus will be further separated from the Sun by then. Although the sky
will not be completely dark anymore by the time they escape atmospheric
pollution, it will be dark enough in twilight to still see Aldebaran and
EpTau in a telescope and binoculars. Try fitting all four in
binoculars early enough before Sunrise this morning as well, as all fit
in a field of 10º. An 11º field is recommended for slightly better
centering. Wide field binoculars can provide these fields, although
that means low magnifications of perhaps under 10x.
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| click on images to enlarge: courtesy of Starry Night Pro Plus, version 6.4.3, by Simulation Curriculum Corp. |
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