Friday, March 24, 2023

Luna - Venus Conjunction, March 24, 2023





In the afternoon of Friday, March 24, after two o'clock, I got a call from my observation buddy Armand Popa.

He gave me a good tip: Venus is visible in full daylight, close and to the West of the Moon.

I took my new ''Saga'' 10x42mm Roof Binocular, a chair and soon I started searching the conjunction on the Southern sky, close to Meridian. Of course, I installed myself in the shadow of the house, in such a way to be safe, the sunshine never to get in my instrument and to my eyes.

The Moon was three days old, waxing crescent, illuminated at  9.8%. It was not visible with the naked eyes.

But it was easy to find with the binocular. 

Venus was at about two Moon diameters toward West, at about the same altitude like the selenar North Pole.

Venus was white and very bright.

The Moon had a greyish tinge and on her crescent not well discernable, very light shadows were fluctuating at the edge of visibility .

It was not my first sighting of Venus in the daylight but it is the best ever.

I forwarded by phone the same information to Csukas Matyas of Salonta, a friend and amateur astronomer and also he was able to see the conjunction.

Both of us where thrilled by the view, thank you Armand !


No comments:

Post a Comment