Tag Archives: Venus

Venus and Jupiter at Dawn 

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Image Credit & Copyright: Stefano De Rosa

 On Monday morning, Venus and Jupiter gathered close in dawn skies, for some separated by about half the width of a full moon. It was their closest conjunction since 2000, captured here above the eastern horizon before sunrise. The serene and colorful view is from Istia beach near the city of Capoliveri on the island of Elba. Distant lights and rolling hills are along Italy’s Tuscan coast. Of course, the celestial pair soon wandered apart. Brighter Venus headed lower, toward the eastern horizon and the glare of the Sun, while Jupiter continues to rise a little higher now in the sky near dawn. The two brightest planets meet again next June 30th, in the evening twilight above the western horizon.

APOD NASA 21-Aug-14

Related posts:

  1. Jupiter and Venus from Earth 
  2. A Milky Way Dawn
  3. Conjunction by the Sea 
  4. Daytime Moon Meets Morning Star

Jupiter and Venus from Earth 

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Image Credit: Marek Nikodem (PPSAE)

 It was visible around the world. The sunset conjunction of Jupiter and Venus in 2012 was visible almost no matter where you lived on Earth. Anyone on the planet with a clear western horizon at sunset could see them. Pictured above in 2012, a creative photographer traveled away from the town lights of Szubin, Poland to image a near closest approach of the two planets. The bright planets were separated only by three degreesand his daughter striking a humorous pose. A faint red sunset still glowed in the background. Early tomorrow (Monday) morning, the two planets will pass even closer – only 0.2 degrees apart as visible from some locations – just before sunrise.

APOD NASA 17-Aug-14

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  1. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot from Voyager 1 
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  4. Earth-size Kepler-186f 

Conjunction by the Sea 

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Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Black

Early morning risers were treated to a beautiful conjunction of Venus and waning Crescent Moon on June 24, captured in this seaside photo near Belmar, New Jersey, USA, planet Earth. The serene celestial pairing is seen above the Atlantic Ocean horizon as the eastern sky grows brighter with dawn’s early light. Wispy, scattered clouds appear in silhouette. But the exposure also reveals the night side of the lunar orb in the armsof the sunlit crescent. That shadowed part of the Moon, with hints of the smooth, dark lunar seas or maria, is illuminated by Earthshine, sunlight reflected from planet Earth itself.

APOD NASA 26-Jun-14

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  1. Clouds and Crescents
  2. Lunar eclipses
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  4. Rotating Moon from LRO

A View from the Zone

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Image Credit & Copyright: Jack Fusco
Explanation: Brilliant Venus and the central Milky Way rise in the early morning hours of March 1 in this sea and skyscape. The scene looks out from a beach at Sea Isle City, New Jersey, USA, planet Earth. Of course, Earth orbits well within the solar system’s habitable zone, that Goldilocks region not too close and not too far from the Sun where surface temperatures can support liquid water. Similar in size to Earth, Venus lies just beyond the inner boundary of the habitable zone. The watery reflection of light from our inhospitable sister planet is seen along a calm, cold ocean and low cloud bank.

NASA APOD 07-Mar-2014

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  1. Habitable Worlds
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Daytime Moon Meets Morning Star

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Image Credit & Copyright: Cui Yongjiang and Shi Zexing

Venus now appears as planet Earth’s brilliant morning star standing above the eastern horizon before dawn. For most, the silvery celestial beacon rose in a close pairing with an old crescent Moon on February 26. But seen from locations in western Africa before sunrise, the lunar crescent actually occulted or passed in front of Venus, also in a crescent phase. Farther to the east, the occultation occurred during daylight hours. In fact, this telescopic snapshot of the dueling crescents was captured just before the occultation began under an afternoon’s crystal clear skies from Yunnan Province, China. The unforgettable scene was easily visible to the naked eye in broad daylight.

NASA APOD 27-feb-2014

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  1. Crescent Moon Meets Evening Star
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Night Hides the World

The Milky Way and planet Venus in the evening twilight over Lake Turkana, northern Kenya.
Image Credit & Copyright: Babak Tafreshi (TWAN)
Stars come out as evening twilight fades in this serene skyscape following the Persian proverb “Night hides the world, but reveals a universe.” In the scene from last November, the Sun is setting over northernKenya and the night will soon hide the shores of Lake Turkana, home to many Nile crocodiles. That region is also known as the cradle of humankind for its abundance of hominid fossils. A brilliant Venus, then the world’s evening star, dominates the starry night above. But also revealed are faint stars, cosmic dust clouds, and glowing nebulae along the graceful arc of our own Milky Way galaxy.

NASA APOD 07-Feb-2014

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  4. Clouds and Crescents

Clouds and Crescents

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Image Credit & Copyright: Christoph Malin (TWAN)
A crescent Venus shines along the western horizon at dusk in this clearing sky. The Earth’s sister planet is smiling between the low clouds near the bottom of the frame during its January 2nd conjunction with the slender, young crescent Moon above. Of course the lovely pairing of Moon and Venus crescents could be enjoyed in the new year’s skies around the the world. But the twin contrails in this scene belong to an aircraft above Appenzell, Switzerland. Soon to disappear from evening skies, Venus is heading toward its January 11th inferior conjunction and an appearance in predawn skies as planet Earth’s morning star by late January. And the Moon will be young again, too.
NASA APOD 04-Jan-2014

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  2. Crescent Moon Meets Evening Star
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  4. Moon online. December 16, 2013

A New Year’s Crescent

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Image Credit & Copyright: Jay Ouellet That’s not the young crescent Moon poised above the western horizon at sunset. Instead it’s Venus in a crescent phase, captured with a long telephoto lens from Quebec City, Canada, planet Earth on a chilly December 30th evening. The very bright celestial beacon is droping lower into the evening twilight every day. But it also grows larger in apparent size and becomes a steadily thinner crescent in binocular views as it heads toward an inferior conjunction, positioned between the Earth and the Sun on January 11. The next few evenings will see a young crescent Moon join the crescent Venus in the western twilight, though. Historically, the first observations of the phases of Venus were made by Galileo with his telescope in 1610, evidence consistent with the Copernican model of the Solar System, but not the Ptolemaic system.

NASA APOD 01-jan-14

Related posts:

  1. Crescent Moon Meets Evening Star
  2. Moon online. December 16, 2013
  3. Solar eclipses
  4. Rotating Moon from LRO