{"id":55320,"date":"2012-04-03T11:57:16","date_gmt":"2012-04-03T15:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=55320"},"modified":"2012-04-03T12:06:54","modified_gmt":"2012-04-03T16:06:54","slug":"venus-and-the-seven-sisters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/astronomy\/venus-and-the-seven-sisters\/","title":{"rendered":"Venus and the Seven Sisters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Venus approaching the Pleiades on March 31. Photo by Jimmy Westlake\/NASA. The Pleiades are the slightly larger, bluer cluster of dots to the left.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

…not to be confused with Snow White and the seven dwarfs. <\/p>\n

According to a brief from NASA<\/a>, the second planet from the Sun is passing directly in front of the Pleiades star cluster. It’s a rare sunset conjunction that’s easy to find with the unaided eye, but best seen through binoculars or a small telescope. <\/p>\n

The configuration could be seen last night, April 2, as Venus entered the outskirts of the little dipper-shaped asterism. Although, from my city yard at about 8:00 pm with an overhead Moon nearing full, the Pleiades were a bit faint. Our favorite astro-photographer, Anthony Ayiomamitis, has a luminous photo of the Pleiades, minus Venus, here<\/a>. He writes of tonight’s event:<\/p>\n

\nViewing the Pleiades through binoculars is strongly advised since one will see the Seven Sisters in all their glory with very fine points of light from other stars enriching the background sky. Also, binoculars may allow one to also glimpse the partial phase of Venus which is similar to a ‘first quarter’ Moon.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

According to NASA, one should “look west at sunset for Venus — it’s the brightest thing around — then scan the area using binoculars. The conjunction will be immediately clear. The best evening to look is Tuesday, April 3, when the brilliant planet glides just south of the dipper’s bowl. Venus exits by the handle on Wednesday, April 4. Venus passes through the Pleiades in this way about once every 8 years.”<\/p>\n

The astro-brief continues, <\/p>\n

\nTo say this is a mixture of dissimilar things would be an understatement.<\/p>\n

The Pleiades are elusive. You rarely find them on purpose. They’re best seen out of the corner of your eye, a pretty little surprise that pops out of the night sky when you’re staring elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Venus is just the opposite. Dazzling, bright enough to cast faint shadows, it beams down from the heavens and grabs you when you’re not even looking.<\/p>\n

The Pleiades, also known as the “Seven Sisters,” are a cluster of young stars. They formed barely 100 million years ago during the age of dinosaurs on Earth from a collapsing cloud of interstellar gas. The biggest and brightest members are blue-white and about five times wider than our own sun.<\/p>\n

Because of their distance, about 400 light years away, the Pleiades are near the limit of naked-eye visibility. When Venus joins them in conjunction, it will look like a supernova has gone off inside the cluster. Venus’s thick clouds reflect so much sunlight, the planet outshines every thing in the night sky except the Moon. Strangely, though, the Pleiades do not look puny in comparison, just delicately beautiful.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you’re curious about trying to photograph the configuration, here is Anthony’s advice:<\/p>\n

Photography is a little more delicate. The longer the telephoto one uses, the better the result will be since we are primarily interested in a section of the sky which approximately covers the same area as a Full Moon. However, because of Earth’s rotation, star trailing will become an issue for extended exposures. It is best to fire off a series of exposures using a fixed tripod and as great a focal length lens as possible. For example, if someone has a 75-300mm zoom, their best bet is 300mm but they should keep in mind that longer exposures can and will suffer from trailing.<\/p>\n

Also, the use of a high ISO (for ex. 800) is advised so as to make the necessary exposure as short as possible and, thereby, minimize star trailing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Good luck to you wherever you are, and may you have clear skies tonight and tomorrow night. We’re hoping the skies in Greece clear so Anthony can take one of his stunning shots. Now, to find someone in town with binoculars I can borrow…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…not to be confused with Snow White and the seven dwarfs. According to a brief from NASA, the second planet from the Sun is passing directly in front of the Pleiades star cluster. It’s a rare sunset conjunction that’s easy to find with the unaided eye, but best seen through binoculars or a small telescope. … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[119],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55320"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}