Neptune Conjunction

Neptune will be in Conjunction with Sun on February 26^th. This means that Sun and Neptune will be close to each other.  At this point, the planet will be farthest from earth and the distance between earth and Neptune will be 463,75,33,991 km that is 31 times the distance between earth and Sun.

We will  have to wait until last part of March to see the planet in the morning skies when it rises one hour before sunrise. A good pair of binoculars or a small telescope is good enough to spot the planet Neptune.

Here are star charts to find the planet Neptune towards end of March.

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Venus and Mars Conjunction

In the evening twilight after sunset, we find Venus shining bright in the western sky. These days we find a red star very close to Venus, in fact this is not a star but red planet Mars. On 22^nd of February these two planets come closest to each other, at just below half a degree. Our moon measures half a degree in the sky.

If we continue observing these planets for few days more, we can see that Venus is moving up in the sky and Mars is getting closer to Sun.

Hope you all get a chance to see this during the weekend.

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Mars and Spica so close yet so far

Mars and Spica will be just one degree apart today evening. We can see the red planet mars and Spica shining bright in the southwest sky after sunset. The pair is easy to spot due to their colour difference, mars will be red and south west of mars will be blue-white star Spica. Although they appear just one degree apart from each other, the closeness ends there.

 

The distance from earth to these two celestial bodies are truly immense.  Mars after coming close earth on April 14^th, it is slowly moving away from us and now mars is close to one AU.  Spica is at a distance of 15810494 AU form us, one AU is the distance between earth and Sun, which is 150 million kilometres. As we can see, the difference is immense. If the skies are clear, in the evening, we will enjoy the view and now we know they are so close yet so far.

 

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Planets for the Month of September

Morning Planets:

Mercury:

Mercury will reach superior conjunction on September 10^th and it will towards the end of the month that Mercury will be placed well for observing.

Jupiter:

Jupiter is well placed for observations in the constellation of Taurus. The giant planet rises early at 11:45pm and has a magnitude of -2.4.  

Venus:

Morning star Venus is well placed of observations through out the month. Venus rises at 3am in the constellation of Cancer shining at a magnitude of -4.2. The planet will just 2 degrees from M44 or beehive cluster as popularly known, on September 14^th making it a fantastic view in binoculars. Seen through the telescope Venus will appear just more than half phase, moving towards gibbous phase as days go by.

Evening Planets:

Mars:

Mars is in the evening twilight in the constellation of Libra. The red planet is at a magnitude of 1.2 and will set at 9:20pm.

Saturn:

Saturn is also placed low in the Western horizon, in the constellation of Virgo. The planet sets early at 8pm.

Uranus:

Uranus is well placed for observetion through out the month. Uranus rises early at 7pm giving full night for observations. This planet is visible through a pair of binoculars is at a magnitude of 5.7. Uranus will reach opposition on September 29^th.

Neptune:

Neptune is also well placed for observations through out the month in the constellation of Aquarius. Neptune has a magnitude of 7.8.

Moon Phases:

Last quarter: 08-Sep-2012

New moon: 16-Sep-2012

First quarter: 22-Sep-2012

Full moon: 30-Sep-2012

Sun:

On September 22^nd Sun will reach autumnal equinox, when Sun's declination becomes zero and Right Aessionsion(RA) becomes 12 h. The Sun will reach this co ordinates at 9pm IST on September 22. Although this point is called First point of Libra, the Sun will be in Virgo constellation.

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