Watch the Two Brightest Planets Kiss in Twilight (Forwarded)

Sky & Telescope
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Contacts:
Alan M. MacRobert, Senior Editor
617-864-7360 x151

Marcy L. McCreary, VP Marketing & Business Dev.
617-864-7360 x143

Press Release: August 19, 2005

Watch the Two Brightest Planets Kiss in Twilight

Note to Editors/Producers: This release is accompanied by
publication-quality illustrations and a broadcast-quality animation; see
details below.

Anyone who looks low in the west early on a clear evening for the next
couple weeks will witness an unusual sight. Venus and Jupiter, the two
brightest planets, will draw closer and closer together from day to day,
will then have an eye-catching conjunction (close pairing) on the evenings
of August 31 to September 2, 2005, and then will begin to move apart.

The direction to look is low in the west-southwest, and the best time is
about 40 to 60 minutes after your local sunset. The brightest of the two
"stars" shining there will be Venus. Jupiter closes in on it from the
upper left during August and passes closest to it on September 1st, when
the two will appear separated by hardly the width of your finger held at
arm's length (about 1.2 degrees).

Also in the vicinity is the much dimmer star Spica. If Spica isn't bright
enough to show through the twilight, binoculars should reveal it easily.
In addition, the waxing crescent Moon joins the party on September 6th and
7th.

Accompanying this release is a series of daily sky scenes that illustrate
what to look for in the fading twilight on any date from August 21st
through September 7th. They can also be played in sequence as a QuickTime
movie to show the dance of the planets, Spica, and the Moon throughout
this period.

Although these objects appear the same distance away as you watch them in
the deepening dusk, this is very much an illusion. Venus is roughly 106
million miles from Earth (its distance changes during the period
illustrated), while Jupiter is 575 million miles away, more than five
times farther. The Moon is about 220,000 miles distant; Spica lies 1.5
quadrillion miles in the background.

Such big distances are better expressed by how long it takes light to
cross them. Venus is about 10 light-minutes from Earth. Jupiter is 52
light-minutes from us, the Moon is only 1.2 light-seconds away, and Spica
is some 260 light-years away. The light reaching your eyes from these
sights has been in flight for very different amounts of time -- something
to think about when gazing at this unearthly view.

Sky & Telescope is pleased to make several publication-quality
illustrations and a broadcast-quality animation available to the news
media
[http://skyandtelescope.com/aboutsky/...le_1569_1.asp].
Permission is granted for one-time, nonexclusive use in print and
broadcast media, as long as appropriate credits (as noted in the caption)
are included. Web publication must include a link to SkyandTelescope.com.

Sky Publishing Corp. was founded in 1941 by Charles A. Federer Jr. and
Helen Spence Federer, the original editors of Sky & Telescope magazine.
The company's headquarters are in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. In addition to Sky &
Telescope and SkyandTelescope.com, the company publishes Night Sky
magazine (a bimonthly for beginners with a Web site at NightSkyMag.com),
two annuals (Beautiful Universe and SkyWatch), as well as books, star
atlases, posters, prints, globes, and other fine astronomy products.

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* This Week's Sky at a Glance
http://skyandtelescope.com/observing...icle_110_1.asp