moon, planets and Aldebaran: tight grouping!

Event Date: July 15th
Time: 5:00 AM


Brief

   This morning has been one well worth looking forward to: we have three solar system bodies within a 7º circle, being Venus, Jupiter and now, the waning crescent Moon!  Besides that, Aldebaran is close to all of them, as the Moon and planets have given this star alot of company...from our vantage point anyway!  The first image shows the planets, Moon and star as a quartet, with the Pleiades star cluster seen above them.  Nothing is labeled, so to give a clearer imitation of what we see.  It doesn't get too much more interesting than this, when it comes to deep sky and solar system body groupings!  Don't forget of course, about the Hyades cluster, which is visible as well.

Detailed
 
   Aldebaran is 65 light years away, in comparison to the Moon less than a quarter-million miles away; Venus is about 43 million away, although moving further from us each day; Jupiter less than 500 million miles away, coming a little closer between now and opposition this fall. 
   Although the closest separation of Venus and Jupiter is past us, they will remain within binocular view together for about one more week.  Venus is starting to pick up in prograde quickly while much slower Jupiter is losing speed in that direction.  While Jupiter will stay near Aldebaran for awhile longer, including the time of its back and forth with retrograde and pro-grade resuming, Venus will be far from it from then.
   As we look at this second image, it does not show the tightest binocular field of Aldebaran, planets, and the Moon.  Instead, I include the stars of the Hyades along with them, increasing the field by a couple of degrees.  Since the magnification is not much different between a field of 7 and 9º, this makes it more interesting, I think.  I put in the Hyades stick figure to more clearly identify the stars that make it up.  Even though the stick figure extends to Aldebaran, once again, it is not part of the cluster.  Why the software makers decided to extend the line to it, I can only guess that at one time long ago, the star was mistakingly thought to be part of the Hyades.  Once light year distances of the Hyades stars were found to be much further from us than Aldebaran, along with the red giant being much cooler and larger than them, it makes sense to think of it as separate.  Aldebaran is also a much older star than the cluster's, hence the red color as opposed to yellow or white.

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