ISS TRANSIT OF VENUS: High above Earth, astronaut Don Pettit is about to become the first human to witness and photograph a transit of Venus from space. His images and commentary will be streamed to Earth during the crossing. [full story] [video]
VENUS AND MERCURY: Venus and Mercury are crossing paths today; Mercury is heading away from the Sun, Venus toward it.
Pete Lawrence photographed them both in broad daylight from his backyard observatory in Selsey, UK:
VENUS AND MERCURY: Venus and Mercury are crossing paths today; Mercury is heading away from the Sun, Venus toward it.
Pete Lawrence photographed them both in broad daylight from his backyard observatory in Selsey, UK:
 | The big disk of Venus has transformed into a slender crescent as the planet turns its night side toward Earth ahead of the June 5th solar transit. The crescent could soon become a ring. When Venus is less than few degrees away from the sun, the horns of the crescent sometimes reach around and touch, producing a complete annulus. The effect is caused by particles in upper layers of Venus's atmosphere which scatter sunlight around the circumference of the planet. |
The ring is very difficult to observe, and often only black-belt astrophotographers are able to record the phenomenon.
Keep an eye on SpaceWeather's realtime photo gallery to see how Venus shape-shifts in the days ahead.
Keep an eye on SpaceWeather's realtime photo gallery to see how Venus shape-shifts in the days ahead.
| CORONAL HOLE: Spewing solar wind, a yawning dark fissure in the sun's atmosphere is turning toward Earth. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed the "coronal hole" during the early hours of June 1st. Coronal holes are places where the sun's magnetic field opens up and allows the solar wind to escape. A stream of solar wind flowing from this coronal hole will reach Earth on June 5th - 7th, possibly stirring geomagnetic storms. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras. http://spaceweather.com/ |  |
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