Planetary conjunction
Close approach of Venus, Jupiter and a two-day old Moon, with Spica not far away CREDIT: XEphem/Megan
While putting together some images for Tuesday's Macclesfield Astronomical Society workshop I noticed that there is another planetary conjunction this week. After the good weather for last Thursday's conjunction between Venus and Jupiter, we've got our fingers crossed for similar conditions this week.
Around sunset, if you look towards the West you should see a crescent Moon just above the horizon, weather permitting of course. Above and slightly to the left will be Jupiter at a magnitude of -1.6, and further to the left will be Venus at a magnitude of -4 so it will be very easy to spot. As the Sun sets at about 19:50 BST, and our meetings start at 8pm BST, this is perfectly timed for observation from the car park, the only problem might be finding a low enough horizon...
The image on the right shows what the sky will look like at about 19:30 BST, just before sunset here in the UK. The blue grid lines in this image are five degrees apart on the sky to give some idea of the scale.
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