Friday, June 08, 2007
Venus and the Beehive, Vesta and Mars.
The north-western evening sky at 6:30 pm, as seen from the southern hemisphere. Click to enlarge.Keep your eye on Venus over the next few days. Venus is now reasonably high in the evening sky, and visible after astronomical twilight. Between now nad August Venus will unbdergo a series of rather beautiful encounters, so its worth watching Venus for some time.
The first notable meeting is Venus and the Beehive cluster. This delicate little cluster lies in the heart of Cancer, the crab. AT the moment, Venus is around a handspan from the Beehive, obver the next few days it will move closer, and between the 11th and 14th Venus will be in the same binocular field as the Beehive. The will be at their clsoest on the 13th, as shown in the image above. The beehive is dim, so you will probaly need binoculars to see this encounter at its best. Following this, Venus meets Saturn and Regulus so keep your eye on the bright planet.
If you are up early in the morning on Monday June 11, Mars and the cresent Moon are close together.
The asteroid Vesta is at magnitude 5.5, and can still be seen with the unaided eye in dark sky sites. A printable lcoation map is here.
Labels: 4 Vesta, Observational Astronomy, Venus
# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 8:35 am 
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