Starship Asterisk*

Hi. I didn't expect to see this photo since the moon and venus will be much closer next month. In Fact from Israel and probably most of Europe the moon will cover Venus (occulation) completely.
Indeed on the mentioned date we had an occulation of the moon and Saturn. I would rather see an APOD for that on the day it happened. There are some great APOD in the past, both for venus and saturn, looks in the archive, but it never hurts to see them all again. Occulations are quite rare, the next visible from Israel will be in 30 years...

On the day of the occultation, you should be easily able to find Venus in the day time sky (If you can locate the moon).

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070523.html
Hey BMAONE23 When is the best time to look for Venus during the day time?
Orin

If you know where to look you could spot it during any clear day for the next month or so. it will gradually decrease in brightness over the next couple of months then start to swing back towards the sun in the sky. It is easiest to spot though when it sits very near the moon as the Moon is so easily spotted during the day. I understand that they will be even closer together next month June 18 2007 (or so). So I would look for it on the day of the occultation.

BMAONE23 wrote:If you know where to look you could spot it during any clear day for the next month or so. it will gradually decrease in brightness over the next couple of months then start to swing back towards the sun in the sky. It is easiest to spot though when it sits very near the moon as the Moon is so easily spotted during the day. I understand that they will be even closer together next month June 18 2007 (or so). So I would look for it on the day of the occultation.

Pardon me for stating the obvious, but if you looked for Venus on the day of the occultation, wouldn't it be behind the Moons disc at that time? or is this just a very short event as with the transit of Venus across the face of the sun?

It is quite easy to find Venus during the day if you know whwre to look. It took me 2 hours the first time I tried, but after practice it is much easier.
During occulation Venus will be behind the moon for only an hour. Spot it before or after. Almost any month there is a day when the moon is close (<7 degrees) to Venus. currently it is in the beginning of each lunar month. Spot the moon, go to some charts, see where venus should be, take binoculars (7* magnification). Put moon in a corner of the filed of view, move a little more toward venus direction, unless they are in the same filed of view. With bino you should see a very bright spot. This is venus. now do the same without bino. much harder. The best time to do it is when venus is just above you. If you don't manage wait about 2 hours before sunset and try again.
Next month even if you miss the oculation they will be so close that a bino will not be necessary. simply look for a brgiht spot near the moon (18/6).

But for the fact of its subject, this image isn't very impressive. I took it in feb 2006 at around 10:00am.
http://s189.photobucket.com/albums/z159 ... T0002b.jpg

tomorrow, 6-18-07, should bring about another alignment of the Moon and Venus that will make it easy to locate Venus in the daytime sky. If I get a good picture, I'll link it here

These were taken yesterday at 5:30pm