[BAA-ebulletin 962] Observer's Challenge: the Moon and Venus in the evening sky

[Rick]

[BAA-ebulletin 00962] Observer's Challenge: the Moon and Venus in the evening sky
(c) 2017 British Astronomical Association    http://www.britastro.org/

Over the next few evenings, Venus and the Moon will form a close pairing in the western dusk sky, providing an excellent photographic challenge.

In December and January, encounters of these two objects occurred when the Moon was a substantial crescent. But Venus is now drawing closer to the Sun as its current evening apparition draws to a close. This month's conjunction is taking place only two days after Sunday's new moon and annular solar eclipse, and so only a tiny slither of the Moon will be visible.

This is the last time the two objects will pass one another in the evening sky until 2018: by next month, Venus will have passed solar conjunction to become a morning object.

On the BAA website, you can find a series of simulations of how the conjunction will appear over the next few evenings, including the positions of Mars and Uranus which are both nearby. The charts are here: https://britastro.org/node/9275

If you manage to observe the pairing, we'd love to see your images. Please do post them to your Members Page in the Community area of the website. We'll be watching out for your images and will post a gallery of some of our favourites over the next few days.

Dominic Ford
BAA Website Operations Team