Tag: Venus

The Moon and Venus

Tomorrow morning, August 13th, the Moon and Venus will meetup for a nice conjunction. Separated by only 1°17′ the pair will be a nice match. The Moon will show about 16% illumination compared with Venus at -4.3 magnitude. A telescopic view of the planet will show that Venus is also at a partial phase, about 50% illuminated.

Viewers further north will be able to witness an occultation, Venus will slide behind the Moon during the middle of the day when high in the sky.

Jupiter will be about 22° west, higher in the sky. While Mercury is still visible just ahead of the rising Sun.

A Line of Planets in the Dawn

A line of bright planets will grace the dawn sky over the coming week. While Mercury has passed maximum elongation and is now headed back into the Sun’s glare, it is still 16° above the horizon at sunrise. Well above Mercury the brilliant Venus is hard to miss, 44° above the horizon at sunrise. Even higher in the sky is Jupiter, at about 67° elevation at sunrise.

Tomorrow morning will see a crescent Moon in the lineup, about 40% illuminated and above Jupiter. Over the next 7 days the Moon will work its way along the line, waning ever thinner as it goes. On the 11th the Moon will be under 2° above Jupiter, On the morning of the 13th the Moon will be very close to Venus, just over 1&deg away.

The Moon, Venus and Jupiter

The three brightest natural objects of our sky, after the Sun, will join to form a nice group tomorrow morning. The dawn of 14 July will see a thin crescent Moon and Venus only 11° apart. The bright Jupiter will be in between, only 6° from Venus. Jupiter will be shining brightly at better that -2 magnitude, Venus will be even brighter at over -4 magnitude. The pair will be a nice match for an 18% illuminated Moon.

The next morning, July 15th, will still see the trio quite close. The Moon will have moved east to a position just 4° north of Venus.

Venus and Aldebaran

Tomorrow morning, July 8th, Venus will pass less than 1° from Aldebaran. The Eye of the Bull may be one of the brightest stars in the sky at 0.9 magnitude, but it is no match for Venus at -4.4 magnitude.

On the morning of the 8th the planet will be 59′ from the star, just an iota under 1°. On the morning of the 9th the distance will be slightly closer at 55′. The pair will rise about 03:18, to be well up in the sky before sunrise.

Venus and the Hyades

As Venus approaches maximum elongation it will pass through the Hyades star cluster. Because Venus reaches it maximum western excursion on July 1st the planet will sweep out an arc that runs just inside the V-shape of the cluster. Thus the planet will remain within the main body of the cluster for the next 20 days.

Today the planet is only 26′ from εTau at one corner of the V-shaped cluster. On July 8th the planet will pass about 1° from Aldebaran as it exits the cluster at the other corner of the V.

The Moon, Venus and Jupiter

A nice trio will grace the dawn tomorrow, the morning of June 17th. Three bright objects will be visible just before sunrise. A brilliant Venus will be 14° above the horizon at sunrise. Above Venus will be a very thin crescent Moon, only 4% illuminated, will be 4° above Venus. About 8° above Venus will be Jupiter, shining brightly at -2.0 magnitude. Thus Jupiter will be the first to rise, at 04:02HST. Sunrise will occur about 05:43, leaving plenty of time to enjoy this bright conjunction.

Venus Appears in the Dawn

This week Venus will appear in the dawn sky. Today the planet will be over 10° from the Sun at dawn. This will increase over a degree each day as Venus climbs higher into the dawn sky. Maximum elongation will occur on August 14th.

A few nice conjunctions will occur with both Jupiter and the Moon over the coming weeks. Stay tuned to Darker View for postings that will keep you up to date.

Transit Webcast Comments

Almost a week later and the comments keep coming in… E-mails to the observatory, comments on my blog, people are still pulling me aside to offer their comments in person. It is somewhat overwhelming. Did we really manage to do this?

Transit Webcast
The transit webcast station while on-the-air, photo courtesy Mark Senft

I spent 6 and change hours with you guys and I really appreciated your dedication to keeping everything up and running for us all around the world. HATS OFF YOU YOU ALL! – Kyle

We are in currently rainy Western Australia, and your webcast was the only way that we got to see the transit at all. My kids’ primary school all tuned into you at some point during the day. 🙂 – Carina

I have been reading the comments as they come in. It is truly gratifying that we managed to share this unique event with so many people.

You made my wife’s day! She was stuck at work & had you and the Keck team in the background for the entire transit! She is eternally grateful! Mahalo nui loa! – Joel

I watched your webcast of the transit from start to finish (with a few breaks here and there). What a great job you guys did! Fascinating, funny and I learned a lot in the process. Thank you for your efforts, and I too look forward to other webcasts from Keck. – Carol

I do not expect we will be doing this again right away. It takes the right sort of event. The one previous webcast was during the close approach of the asteroid 2005 YU55 in November of 2011. That time we webcast from the remote operations room in Waimea. It was also a good success, with great cooperation from the astronomers doing the observation. Need to take advantage of the best opportunities.

Thank you all for your hard work and dedication. I signed on t minus 10 min and stayed until you guys went off the air. I enjoyed myself the entire time. I know for a fact that a lot of people learned tons during this broadcast. My wish, hope and dream is that you continue to do events like this. You all gave it such a warm (beep) behind the scenes feel that made us all feel “part of the science.” The picture in picture was awesome and the graphics support mid-show was much appreciated. I can’t wait until next time! – Eric

We supported an average of between 5k and 6k viewers at any given time, with a total of over 100,000 live views. This viewer count may have badly underestimated the actual number of viewers, often the feed was being shown to large crowds at other public venues. Andrea Ghez mentioned that they were showing our feed at the UCLA event, the feed was on at at least two schools, and our own crowded Hualalai auditorium at Keck Headquarters in Waimea. I keep learning of other crowds the feed was shown to…

“Our observatory in Sonoma County was clouded out much of the day so we had your feed up for our 300+ visitors to supplement live viewing between the clouds. After sunset I went home to watch the rest of the transit on UStream and read the firehose of comments. It was a giant star party! Thanks for all the effort. Best outreach ever!” – Cecelia

A great experience shared with so many people across the globe. Thanks to everyone who made the Transit of Venus such a great day… Our Keck crew and the viewers who were there with us.