Beautiful crescents
The waxing crescent moon has been a beautiful site in the evening sky over the last few days. Last night, it paired with Saturn.
The first quarter moon was Tuesday, which is when half of the moon is illuminated as we see it here on Earth.
Did you know that the moon isn't the only celestial body that goes through phases? Even though Venus is extremely bright, it is only a thin crescent right now!
Venus through a telescope. Image Credit: Astrophotographer Mariano Ribas of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Picture takern Oct. 14, 2018. Image source: Spaceweather.com Realtime Image Gallery.
Venus is very close to the sun, so we only see a small portion of the planet's illuminated side. It is impressive how bright the planet appears with such a small percentage of it reflecting light to Earth!
It will pass between the Earth and sun on October 26. This is referred to as the inferior conjunction. It will be closest to Earth at this time, but it is also the hardest time to observe the planet.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Astrophotos: Sliver of Venus at Inferior Conjunction <a href="http://t.co/5Mh6qKuGvd">http://t.co/5Mh6qKuGvd</a> <a href="http://t.co/bv4B9eepAj">pic.twitter.com/bv4B9eepAj</a></p>— Universe Today (@universetoday) <a href="https://twitter.com/universetoday/status/422842772312559616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2014</a></blockquote>
The above image shows what Venus looks like through a telescope when it reaches the inferior conjunction.
Looking ahead to the Orionids.
Just as the famous constellation Orion is becoming more prevalent in the night sky, the Orionid meteor shower occurs. Orion is probably the most famous winter constellation. On October 21/22, meteors will appear to radiate from the club of Orion. This shower is sparked by the famous Halley's comet. Debris from Haley's comet on the other side of the solar system causes the Eta Aquarius meteor shower in spring.
The Orionids are the more active shower. Activity is expected to be a little higher this year than years past, with 20-25 meteors per hour, but bright moonlight will be an issue; however, the shower is best viewed after midnight through dawn when Orion is highest in the sky. The moon will set the night of the 21/22 around 5 a.m., leaving a couple of hours before dusk to view the shower without moonlight.
There will be several more meteor shower peaks through the rest of the fall season. Read more about the fall meteor showers.
Thanks for reading. Just look up; you never know what you will see!
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