Venus leaving Jupiter, nearing Aldebaran

Event Date: July 7th
Time: 5:00 AM

Brief

   Venus continues to slowly pull away from Jupiter, although the latter's pro-grade motion is still fast enough to almost keep up with Venus and show them at precisely the same separation.  Every morning however, while now past conjunction with the Sun, Jupiter is gradually slowing down in pro-grade motion and Venus is quickly increasing in that direction against the stars.  Here they are featured below, with Venus still in the Hyades star cluster and the Pleiades star cluster northwest of them.  Just southeast of Venus is a bright star which it passed once already in retrograde, and about to pass by closer this time in prograde: Aldebaran.  The bright star Capella which I featured yesterday within its parent-constellation Auriga, is shown further north to the left.

Detailed

    The separation between the two planets was a little less than 5º about a week ago, and now a little over 5º.  They will remain binocular-friendly as a pair for about one more week, and a few days longer if your binoculars give a wide field up to 10º.
   Now that the Sun is rising slightly later each morning, with that rate of change increasing more quickly as this month progresses, the problem of long twilight will eventually go away as well.  As it is, the planets, stars and clusters mentioned so far here, are more visible low to the horizon than they were a couple of weeks ago.  As we zoom in to Venus and Aldebaran within the Hyades cluster (which Aldebaran is not a part of, remember), we can see how the planet is coming closer to the star in separation angle.  This morning seen in nautical twilight, the two are seen 1.2º apart.

click on images to enlarge: courtesy of Starry Night Pro Plus, version 6.4.3, by Simulation Curriculum Corp.

We will come back to the pair in two days, and look at them at their closest.  For either day, they are a good binocular pair, while a telescope can include them too this morning when a wide field is used.  Use a field of 2º for this evening, which may require an eyepiece with a large apparent field of view, and/or a low f-ratio of between 5-7.