Hyades-Venus-Jupiter-Pleiades formation

[starfinder]

I was running a planetarium program and realised that in the next several days, there will be an almost straight line formation of the Hyades cluster, Venus, Jupiter, and the Pleiades.

This can be seen from Singapore just before dawn quite low in the East-Northeast. Venus is now within the Hyades open cluster, about 3 degrees from the eye of the bull (Aldebaran, alpha-Tauri) and seems to form the 2nd eye of the bull.

It would therefore be the 2 brightest planets lined up with perhaps the 2 brightest open clusters.

Yesterday morning, Venus and Jupiter were a very prominent sight in the pre-dawn skies.

Also, on Mon 9 and Tues 10 July 2012, Venus will be less than one degree from Aldebaran (around 55-57 arc minutes). It would make for an interesting sight in the eyepiece and in a photograph, as Venus would be a crescent at around 24% phase.

Here is a screenshot from Stellarium for tomrw, Sun 24 June 2012 at 6am:

[Gary]

@Starfinder - Thanks for the heads up. July 15 morning is even more interesting - waning crescent Moon joins the party and gets close to Jupiter. Will be interesting to do a overnight observation session starting from Sat 14 July under dark clear skies.

Jump to 3:46 in the following video if by any weird reason amateur astronomers find the stuff before that not interesting.

[Gary]

This coming Sunday morning before sunrise. Clear skies!

[Gary]

Smiley Face formed by Jupiter, Venus, Moon! Visible in Singapore tmr morning b4 sunrise. From 4:30am-6am+. Look East!

[kaiinn]

Woke up early today to send my sis inlaw to catch her coach to KL at 6am. As I return home about 620am, I saw a few bright morning 'star'. It must be the the formation so I took out my portable galileoscope 50mm for a quick look.

To my supprise, I saw a crescent object. Liked a crescent moon but much much smaller. I believe it was a crescent venus! I am familiar with jupiter and of course Moon so I dont think I could have mistaken it as that. but the question is how was it be possible? a eclipse of venus with what? with earth to far I guess and never heard of.

[Mariner]

It is indeed Venus but not an eclipse. Because Venus' orbit is closer to the sun than earth, what you're seeing is the waxing cresent similar to that of our moon.

[kaiinn]

O I see.
but what is causing the waxing? the shadow cant be earth right so what is it?

[Mariner]

As with the crescent moon, the position of Venus isbtween that of the sun and earth. As such we can only see the lit portion that appears to us as a crescent phase.

To illustrate take a ball and put it between your yes and a light source. That is eclipse. Move the ball slight awsy and you can only see a sliver portion that is lit up in the form of a crescent. For greater effect, do this in a darken room with only one light source.

http://www.astro.umd.edu/resources/intr ... hases.html

[kaiinn]

ok. understand now. because venus is between earth and sun and as earth turns facing sun in the dawn, only part of venus is lit by the sun. The crescent venus is a partial lit venus with its own shadow!

[Gary]

Hi Kaiinn. Congrats of seeing the Morning Star through your scope!

It was a relatively clear morning indeed. Once again, the misconception of only a big powerful scope can let one enjoy astronomy is shattered. And being such a portable telescope setup, you manage to grab-n-go with it and catch Venus instead of giving yourself excuses not to set up a bigger scope because you are too tired after waking up early in the morning and sending off your sis inlaw.

Pleiades was relatively clear this morning also and looked great even in a finder scope. Try observing it with you Galileoscope next time! Treat as a fun challenge finding out the limits of what can be see through the Galileoscope under good sky conditions.

As for Venus question, perhaps try to disassociate dark = some of shadow must be involved. Universe as a whole is a very very dark place. When starlight hits the surface of a planet, that side is lit. The other unlit side is dark simply because the absence of light shining on it.

This illustration may be helpful in visualising it:

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Phases-of-Venus2.svg