Venus and Jupiter 2015

I have been a bit obsessed with Venus and Jupiter of late. I have been watching the two of them now since late January, when Jupiter was above the eastern, and Venus above the western horizons just after sunset. Since then Venus has been moving retrograde, that is, every night it has been appearing to be higher in the sky and closer to the east. At the same time, Jupiter has been moving closer to west at approximately the same rate as the stars around it do through the passage of time. Venus will discontinue its retrograde motion on 7/6 and slowly start heading back down towards the Sun; it will reach inferior conjunction with Sun 15/8. Jupiter and Venus will be together (in our sky) 1/7. If you draw a 60/30 right angle triangle, with the hypotenuse between the Earth and the Sun, Venus would be at the right angle with the 30° being at Earth. (These angles are very approximate) Jupiter, on the other hand is almost completely on the other side of Sun. This makes it a huge distance away and it is still very bright. Venus and Jupiter tonight at home.

Sunday Stills: The letter “L”

Some Lavender photos for Ed’s challenge this week