On March 11, 2012 I went out to get
some images of the Venus and Jupiter conjunction. That was the last
really good clear night that I had the chance to image it. Over the
past few days from March 10-15 the two planets got closer and closer
in the sky reaching a distance, from our view, of 3°. They remained
at that distance for a few days, but now Jupiter is slowly getting
lower in the West after sunset, and Venus is at it's greatest
elongation which means it's as far away from the sun and as high in
our sky as it's going to get. Here are a few pictures I took on the
11th of the two planets.
This bottom picture shows Venus and Jupiter after sunset with the Pleiades and the Hyades up and to the left.
Venus is also on it's way to being
within the Pleiades cluster, Messier 45, which will take place from
April 1-4. Hoping for clear skies on at least one of those days for a
nice view of this conjunction through the telescope.
I have created a Google Calendar displaying events worth looking for in the sky for anyone without a
telescope. I know it's a bit late for the March calendar, but I
should have April added to the calendar by the end of the weekend. I
may also start adding weekly objects to look for through a small
telescope or a pair of binoculars.
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