Astronomy Down Under

Lunar encounters

18 Jun at 14:02 by Wilson

If you have a relatively clear view to the west and north-west, today is a good day to go outside after sunset and look to the sky. The Moon, Saturn and Venus will be very close to each other and very bright in the north-west sky (as seen from Melbourne) for a few hours following the sunset today. This is what it will look like just after 6pm (click on the image to see a larger version):

Tomorrow may be even more spectacular, with the Moon very, very close to Saturn (in fact, the further north you are, the closer it will be, and if you happen to be a bit north of Papua, you’ll see the Moon moving in front of Saturn just before 6pm). It will look like this at 6pm:

In both days, the bright star Regulus also makes a good appearance and adds to the spectacle. The Moon will actually occult Venus, Saturn and Regulus over these two days, but none of the occultations will be visible from Australia. And, sadly, in both days the weather forecast for Melbourne is not very good for anyone looking at the sky. As I write this, at 2pm, the sky is very cloudy and the north-western sky is not visible at all. Let’s wait and (try to) see…