Catch a ‘Conjunction Triple Play’ on February 20th as the Moon Meets Venus & Mars

universetoday.com/ ^ | David Dickinson

[BenLurkin]

The first sighting opportunities for the slim waxing crescent Moon will come Thursday night on February 19th. And don’t miss the main event on Friday, February 20th when Mars, Venus and the two day old waxing crescent Moon all fit within a two degree diameter circle — about four Full Moon diameters — prior to sunset. You can’t miss brilliant Venus, shining at -4th magnitude as the 3rd brightest natural object in the sky next to the Sun and the Moon. Through a telescope, Venus presents an 88% illuminated disk 12” in size and growing, while Mars shines at +1.3 magnitude and is just 4.2” in size. The closest conjunction of Venus and Mars actually occurs just 48 hours later, when they both fit within a 30’ field of view on the evening of Sunday, February 21st.

[BenLurkin]

Looking west on the evening of February 20th. Credit: Stellarium.

[dfwgator]

Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?

[Darksheare]

It has a malfunction!

[The Cajun]

Thanks, worth trying to remember to take a look.

[WayneS]

and/or/nor

[Calvin Locke]

I remember the triple conjunction of ‘80...and the lack of interest from my classmates.

[9thLife]

oh, dat’s some cool jazz, baby.

[gorush]

You enjoyed some other photos I posted showing scale in the solar system...well, here's another I ran across recently.

[BenLurkin]

nice!

[The Cajun]

Back in the late 50's, I think I was the only one who had a telescope, a little Sears and Roebuck X60 refractor and tripod, LOL!

Still have it as a matter of fact and use it as a spotting scope for target shooting long range.

[Jane Long]

Cool! Thanks for posting ;)

[elcid1970]

When the moon is in the seventh house,
And Jupiter aligns with Mars......

[Conan the Librarian]

On the 21st, there will be the conjunction of Mars and Venus alone.

Also that night, Uranus will be occluded by the Moon, but, you’ll need a bigger scope to see it.

My 10” Newt probably won’t cut it.

[BenLurkin]

One of these days I’ll figure out how to get my celestron working. Never could get the darn thing to find anything.

[Calvin Locke]

I have a 5.25” reflector now. It’s been too cold to go through the trouble of hauling out the door, and operating it bundled up.

[The Cajun]

I've been looking at some of the Celestron scopes that connect wireless to a PC.

Scope outside, PC warm and comfi in the house :)

[Calvin Locke]

I looked at adding a camera and automation. My astro software package supports the APIs. I was thinking more of being able to do long exposure tracking as well.

Heck, with the temps around here, wouldn't really need a fan on the camera.

[The Cajun]

Dang, just noticed you are in Vermont, don't think cooling would be a problem, LOL!

The reason I went to the Celestron site was looking into getting a PC wireless microscope and starting looking at their telescopes also.

They have lots of nice toys.