Astrobytes

Over the next ten days just after sunset, looking west, two bright planets will appear to pass each other from our perspective here on Earth. On June 9th the two planets will appear closest at 1.6 degrees apart. This is what astronomers call a visual planetary conjunction. Venus is the brighter of the two. It’s 7400 miles in diameter and at a distance of about 112 million miles. A small telescope will show Venus’ disc in a gibbous phase.

Similar to the ever-recurring Mars Will Be As Large As The Moon stories, occasionally press writers lacking scientific background publish an astronomy story without due diligence. Information is published that is either inaccurate or blown out of proportion.

An astronomical event that everyone can see with their own eyes! Binoculars or small telescopes can be used but no special eye protection is necessary. As the Moon also moves the sky, west to east as seen in the northern hemisphere, it occults many stars, asteroids, and occasionally a planet. In fact asteroids and planets also occult background stars and they travel across the sky.

Welcome to "Astrobytes”, a weekly column dedicated to those interested in astronomy and the natural wonder that occurs as we look up on a clear starry night. Astrobytes is geared to the excitement of astronomy and how our understanding of the universe around us has evolved from the past to the present. We’ll look at the future of astronomy and learn of incredibly huge ground based telescopes coming on-line, and talk about space satellites and space telescopes of the twenty-f