Astroblog: Venus close to Uranus (8-9 March, 2020)

Saturday, March 07, 2020

Venus close to Uranus (8-9 March, 2020)

Sky at 20:39 ACDST on Sunday, March 8 (60 minutes after sunset) looking west as seen from Adelaide. Venus is prominent in the sky. At this time it is closest to the dim planet Uranus. The inset shows the approximate binocular view of Venus and Uranus at this time.

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia 60 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen.

On the 8th and 9th Venus is close to Uranus. Close in this context being around two finger-widths away. While in theory Unaus is bright enough to be seen with the unaided eye (magnitude 5.8), its closeness to the horizon, best visibility at nautical twilight (and hour after sunset) and the brightness of Venus, Uranus will be effectively visible only in binoculars.

Black and white spotters chart suitable for printing (click to embiggen and print). The grey area is below the horizon.

Unfortunately stellarium washes out the stars when I try and make a higher powered spotters map, so I made a black and white printable map, this shows the track of Venus and Urans from the 7th to 10.

The circle is the approximate filed of view of 10x50 binoculars and the Pleiades (also seen in the stellarium chart) are at the upper right.

Black and white binocular chart suitable for printing (click to embiggen and print).

The chart is in the same orientation as the spotters charts,stars down to magnitude 11 are shown. The circle is the approximate filed of view of 10x50 binoculars. This shows the track of Venus and Uranus from the 7th to 10.

A scale line and compass direction is also shown. Use in conjunction with a red torch to preserve your night sight.

Labels: Conjunction, Uranus, Venus