WE’VE GOT
A NEW LOOK!
VisitSkyNews.ca
on November 11
Where
Earth
Meets
Sky
CHARTS BY GLENN LEDREWTIME: DUSKEXPLORING THE NIGHT SKYDATE:SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28 TYPE: CONJUNCTIONVENUS AND THE MOON
ONCE AGAIN
The final noteworthy conjunction of 2019 hap-
pens to be one of the year’s best. It’s another
meeting of the waxing crescent Moon and
Venus. This time, the Moon hangs two degrees
below the gleaming planet. Venus’s altitude
has doubled since its November 28 conjunction
with the Moon, making this pairing easier to
see and all the more striking.
The Moon and Venus will meet several
times during the planet’s 2019/20 apparition,
but none of the conjunctions will be closer
than this one. Venus’s current run will feature
a spectacular elongation high in the spring
sky that includes an April 3 passage through
the Pleiades cluster, in Taurus. Consider that
a teaser for the many fine events coming in
2020, which I’ll describe in the next issue.✦26 SKYNEWS •NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019
HELLO VENUS, GOOD-BYE SATURN
The evening planetary dance continues in the southwest as ascending Venus approaches a
second descending planet, Saturn. On December 10, Venus lies two degrees below Saturn (and
remains nearly as close the following evening). In a telescope, the two worlds appear similar in
size—the disc of Saturn spans 15 arc seconds; Venus is 12 arc seconds—although you’ll need
a wide-field instrument to examine both planets in the same field of view. More obviously,
they’ll look conspicuously different to the naked eye. Venus is a beacon at magnitude –3.9,
while Saturn is a relatively anaemic magnitude 0.6. That’s a difference of 30 times in brightness!DATE: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10
TIME: DUSKTYPE: CONJUNCTIONVIEW:NAKED EYECAPRICORNUSVenusSWMoonVIEW:NAKED EYESAGITTARIUSVenus (Dec 10)SWSaturn