Category Archives: Astronomy

They’re getting closer. The closest point of this conjunction will be Tuesday night, June 9th.

After that, their apparent positions will appear to separate and drift apart. They’ll be visible and bright through most of June, but then Jupiter will pass behind the Sun from our viewpoint and a couple of weeks later it will pop up in the pre-dawn morning sky.

I won’t be getting up early for that.

The clouds right down near the horizon were pink and pretty, but they were also blocking our view of Mercury tonight. Don’t worry, it’s still there.

If you’ve had clear skies and you’ve looked to the west at sunset in the last couple of weeks, you’ve no doubt noted the two really bright objects hanging up there like jewels in the dusk. “Dusky jewels,” as it were.

If you’ve hung out here over the years, you would probably have (correctly) guessed that that’s Jupiter and Venus. They do this with some regularity every couple of years.

So, introductions. Just to the right of the tree is Jupiter. Just below and to the right of that is Venus. Slightly above the two planets are two bright stars, Pollux and Castor, in the constellation Gemini. (They’re “the twins.”) And, click on the photo to blow it up nice and large and look just above the roof of the neighbor’s house, just to the right of that tree sticking up from their back yard – that’s Mercury.

As you get a little bit later it will get darker and Mercury will stand out more, but it will also be setting first, so don’t wait too long after sunset to look. (These pictures were taken at about 20:50 tonight from SoCal.) Venus and Jupiter will be up for an hour or more after sunset, so you’ve got plenty of time to grab your binoculars and look for the Galilean moons near Jupiter.

Jupiter and Venus will appear to move closer together over the next four nights, with their tightest conjunction occuring next Tuesday, June 9th. From there they’ll start to appear to drift apart, but on Tuesday, June 16th the one-day old Moon will join the party and should look spectacular with the planets.

I’ll probably take more pictures… (It’s sort of my thing.)

The moon was 98% illuminated, about 30 hours before Full Moon just after midnight PDT on Sunday.

The birds didn’t appreciate the view, they just wanted me to hurry up and finish refilling their feeders.

Floating there just like another planet in our sky.

A small telescope or even a pair of binoculars are all you need to start exploring and finding craters, mountain ranges, and other prominent features. It’s BRIGHT at Full Moon, but everything looks flat then because there aren’t any shadows. Look before or after full so that you get some nice shadows and lots of detail popping out along the terminator (the dividing line between dark and illuminated).