What’s in the sky?
Venus is usually the first planet people spot in the sky because it is so easy to see. At its best Venus is the brightest, most beautiful object in the sky, after the Sun and Moon of course. It’s ironic that Venus’ magnificent brightness is the very same reason why its surface is always hidden from us. The planet has an atmosphere of carbon dioxide so thick it appears opaque from Earth. With no gaps in the planet’s clouds its surface can never be seen from Earth, but space probes fitted with radar instruments have mapped it, revealing it has continent-like land masses with towering mountain ranges, deep valleys, wide plains and even volcanoes. Despite some tantalising observations in recent years, planetary scientists are still unsure if any of those volcanoes are active.
Back at the start of the year, and into spring, Venus dominated the evening sky. You probably saw it shining there, lantern bright, outshining every other star and planet in the sky. Venus has since fallen past the Sun and moved into the morning sky, and it will spend the whole of our observing period there as a ‘morning star’. In contrast to its stunning appearance at the start of the year, through June – despite its magnitude of -4.2 – Venus’ low altitude in the bright predawn sky means it will be less than conspicuous. Thankfully, as the mornings pass the visibility of the fascinating world – often called Earth’s Twin because of its similar size to our own planet – will improve as it moves away from the Sun, and it will have company in that darker sky too.
By the end of June Venus will be shining in the constellation of Taurus, positioned almost directly between the V-shaped Hyades star cluster and the ‘mini Big Dipper’ of the Pleiades cluster. Cross your fingers for clear skies before sunrise on the morning of 9 July because that’s when Venus will have moved to sit right in the middle of the Hyades, looking very attractive through a pair of binoculars or a small telescope.
By 13 July Venus will have slid some way to the east and will be shining just one degree, or two Moon widths, away from the bright-orange star Aldebaran. On 15 July, at the end of our observing period, Venus will have moved clear of Aldebaran and will be some 25 degrees to the lower left of a waning crescent Moon.
Constellation: Aries
Magnitude: +5.9
AM/PM: AM
This won’t be a good month for fans of the penultimate planet in the Solar System. The ice-giant world,
Constellation: Sagittarius
Magnitude: -2.7
AM/PM: AM
At the start of our observing period Jupiter will be rising around midnight, which will technically make it a morning planet. You’ll find it shining like a bright, blue-white star to the upper left of the stars which form the handle of the famous ‘Teapot’ asterism of Sagittarius. After rising in the southeast, with Saturn close by on its left, it will trace out a low arc across the southern sky through the quiet hours until dawn. Between 5 and 7 July the Moon, bright and full, will pass beneath Jupiter. On the 6th Jupiter will be shining directly above it. four times Earth’s diameter, will be low in the southeast before sunrise in the small and unremarkable constellation of Aries, but its magnitude of +5.9 will probably make it too faint to see.