Moon and Venus before dawn April 4 and 5
This image is a previous conjunction of a crescent moon near the Planet Venus. (Credit: Sharto. Some rights reserved.)
Thursday, April 3, 2008
This Friday and Saturday morning – April 4 and 5 – may be your last chance to catch the moon and Venus together before dawn…until next year.
This is especially true for the northern hemisphere, where you might need binoculars now to glimpse the pair in morning twilight. At 40 degrees north latitude – the latitude of Denver, Colorado – Venus rises just 30 minutes before the sun. To see it, you’ll need an absolutely level horizon, without any mountains, trees, or buildings in the way. As dawn begins to break tomorrow, look for the whisker-thin waning crescent moon almost due east. Scan for Venus along the eastern horizon, lower than the moon in the predawn sky.
From the southern hemisphere, Venus is much easier to see, but you’ll still want an unobstructed eastern horizon for optimal viewing. At southern temperate latitudes – like those in Australia – Venus rises well over an hour before sunrise. So the view is best from the southern hemisphere. Still, around the world at dawn tomorrow, Venus resides below the moon before dawn.
Every day now, the moon and Venus are traveling eastward relative to the sun. In other words, they’re moving closer to the sun on the sky’s dome. The moon will pass between the sun and Earth on April 6, transitioning into the evening sky. Venus, traveling more slowly, will swing directly behind the sun on June 9 before sweeping again into the evening sky.
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