Whatever the weather, be sure to peek through the clouds tonight! Venus and Jupiter are in conjunction, at only 0.3º apart. “Sky and Telescope” describes this as “about the width of a chopstick at arm’s length.” There is no magic to a conjunction; it’s just a chance alignment, from our point of view, of objects that are millions upon millions of miles apart. Still, it’s cool, a once-in-a-not-so-often opportunity to see them together in a single field of a telescope at low power, or together in the field of any ordinary binocular.
Look to the West as the Sun is setting. The first two objects to appear will be Venus and Jupiter. Most binoculars show Venus as a glaring disk, but telescopes clearly reveal it to be, currently, at about 1/3 phase. For a special treat, look again on July 18, when Jupiter and a 1/4 phase Venus will form a slender triangle with the thinnest crescent of a Moon.
If the weather rots tonight, no worries; the planets separate slowly over the next week, so the show is not yet over. Watch ’em every night! See “National Geographic” to learn more about the current and future conjunctions.
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