Venus near crab-star

Event Date: September 15th
Time: 5:30 AM


Brief

Earlier this season, I showed Mercury near the star (A)sellus (A)ustralius, (Delta Cancri), magnitude 3.9.  Yesterday and this morning, we have Venus with about as close an encounter with the star as Mercury had: 1.3º for Venus and AA.  The biggest difference between now and then, is that Venus is so much brighter than Mercury, so it is not as easy for the star to stand out when looking without optical aid.  Venus overwhelms it, while smaller, further Mercury looked much dimmer to us and closer to that of AA's magnitude.
Below is a zoom-out of the two, followed by a 2º zoom-in.  Since several days have passed, AA rises alot earlier than it did during its conjunction with Mercury, while the sky continues to increase in darkness by over a minute each morning.

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

Detailed

   Venus will move away from AA quickly over the next few days, and fall out of this field.  The two will remain visible together in binoculars for a few more days, before Venus separates itself too much.  With the eye alone, it is a little better to see them just before or after their closest encounter; Venus' brightness won't get in the way of AA as much.  Keep in mind also that when Venus has a close encounter with the same star for each revolution [around the Sun], the separation can greatly vary; it depends how we view Venus in orbit against the stars from our position against them, on Earth.  The next time that we see them at their closest will be during evening of July 4th of next year, slightly further separated.  Besides AA, try viewing Venus near other stars when close--particularly brighter ones so easier to see with the eyes near Venus) and monitor each time that Venus comes back to that star,  As we saw with Venus and the Hyades star cluster earlier this year, it passed that in retrograde and prograde, so the double-pass of a star can happen within the span of just a couple days if close enough to retrograde  during that 48-hour period.  If Venus is very near the star, during the day of its retrograde to prograde motion for example, it can spend a few extra days near it.