Let’s hope for clear skies during the coming week, at least in the evenings. There will be two major conjunctions, or what I like to call celestial huggings, during prime time in the early evenings. Even if you’re not all that into astronomy or stargazing, I know you’ll like what you’ll see, with or without a telescope.
In the western sky during the early evening, the planets Venus and Saturn will be drawing closer and closer to each other this week. Next Saturday evening they will be less than a degree apart, just about the width of a full moon in the sky. This will be the closest conjunction of two planets in the sky this year. Don’t wait until Saturday though. Look at it every chance you get this week as the two planets draw closer and closer to each other.
Toward the end of evening twilight, look in the low western sky for Venus. You can’t miss it. It’s the brightest star-like object in the sky tonight. Just to the upper left will be Saturn, not nearly as bright as Venus, but still the next brightest object in that part of the sky. As it gets darker the two planets will really stand out, but don’t wait until too late, because by 11 p.m. or so, the planetary pair will be setting, and within about 45 minutes of their setting they’ll start to get lost in the haze near the horizon.
Just to the upper right of Saturn and Venus will be another object that’s actually a star called Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo. Leo is easy to see because it looks like a backward question mark leaning to the right, with Regulus at the bottom of the query mark. The question mark outlines the chest and head of the mighty lion, with Saturn and Venus not far from Leo’s jaws.
The Saturn and Venus show is entertaining enough to the naked eye, but through a telescope it’s even better, especially toward the end of the week, when the planets will be close enough to see them together through your scope. Individually, neither planet will show you its best stuff. Saturn is nearly at its maximum distance from Earth, more than 900 million miles away, and it will be a little fuzzy because of the proximity to the western horizon. You should still be able to see the ring system of Saturn and some of its brighter moons, which look like little swarming stars. Venus is much closer, but is completely cloud covered, as it is all the time. The cool thing about seeing Venus through a telescope right now is that it’s crescent shaped. Just like the moon, the planets Venus and Mercury, which are closer to the sun than the Earth, go through phases and change shapes.
Even though Venus and Saturn are close together in the sky, they’re actually nowhere near each other. They just happen to be in the same line of sight from Earth. The comings and goings of the planets in our sky are the result of their individual orbits around the sun as well as the earth’s orbit around our home star. All three planets have different orbital speeds, but they circle the sun in nearly the same plane, which helps us see these occasional celestial hugs.
Over in the eastern sky there’s also a nice conjunction, although not as spectacular. The nearly full moon will be dancing past the very bright planet Jupiter. This Wednesday evening, the moon will be just to the lower right of Jupiter and Thursday night the moon will hang just to the lower left of the king of the planets. There’s also a dark red star in the vicinity. A little to the lower right of Jupiter is the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius, Antares, a star more than 3,400 trillion miles away.
Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and author of the new book “Washington Starwatch,” available at bookstores and on his Web site, www.lynchandthestars.com.
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