Space Weather news for April 8, 2007
http://spaceweather.com
VENUS & THE PLEIADES: Venus and the Pleiades are converging for a close encounter on Wednesday, April 11th. At closest approach, the planet and the star cluster will be about 2 degrees apart, tight enough to fit behind your upturned thumb held at arm's length. They're an odd couple. Venus is extravagantly bright while the Pleiades are faint and delicate, yet together they make a pretty ensemble suitable for photography, binoculars or simple naked-eye viewing. Watch the western sky after sunset in the nights ahead to see them drawing together.
BAFFLING BANDS: Also featured on today's edition of spaceweather.com are photos of dark bands in Venus' atmosphere. These features were first observed in detail by the Mariner 10 spacecraft in the 1970s and they have baffled astronomers ever since. Amateur astronomers with properly-filtered backyard telescopes can monitor the mysterious bands for themselves, and indeed this is a good week to do it.
Visit http://spaceweather.com for more information, photos and sky maps.
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