> How to observe Mercury and Venus

Mercury and Venus in the sky - how to observe the first planets from the Sun: choosing a telescope and filters, when to observe and where to look, photos of the planets, Venus during the day.

Mercury and Venus seem to be the easiest planets to observe, because they are considered the neighbors of the Earth, located at a relatively close distance, and Venus was generally perceived in antiquity as the Morning and Evening Star, because it burned brightly in the night sky. However, it is important to know how to find Mercury and Venus and distinguish them from other objects. You should also understand how to choose and buy the right telescope in order to enjoy the view and even take high-quality photos of Mercury and Venus.

Mercury is the planet closest to the Sun. The distance between the Sun and Mercury is approximately 58,000,000 km. The planet's orbit is overly elongated. The length of a year on Mercury is 88 days. Around the planet there is a very rarefied atmosphere with a high content of helium. The pressure of such an atmosphere is 500 billion times lower than the pressure at the surface of the Earth habitual to man.

Venus is one of the most interesting objects in the starry sky, which is second only to the Sun and the Moon in terms of brightness. The planet makes a full revolution around the Sun in 255 days, and around its axis - in 243 days. This makes Venus the planet with the longest day in the solar system. The atmosphere of Venus is about 96.5% carbon dioxide and 3.5% nitrogen.

Tools

There are no significant differences between how to find mercury and venus in the sky. But there are a few tricks here that are worth learning. For example, observations of Venus will be ineffective if carried out with an achromatic refractor, which aggravates the image with impressive chromatism. This is especially noticeable because of the brightest shine of the planet. It's best to stock up on a Go-To or equatorial mount, as exploration of the lower planets is usually done during the day. That is why the use of the usual alt-azimuth mounts is virtually impossible here.

With visual surveys, it is almost impossible to see any details on the surface of Venus and Mercury, so you should not doubt the quality of optical telescopes. Modern planetary eyepieces - monocentrics and orthocentrics will help to correct the situation.

Do not forget about the set of color filters, which must contain dark red, red and orange filters, designed to increase the contrast of the planets during observations in the twilight or daytime sky. Violet and blue filters are used to visualize dark details on planetary disks.

Please note that during daytime observations of Venus or Mercury, you cannot look at the Sun through an optical finder or telescope eyepiece! Avoid even accidental entry of the Sun into the field of view of the telescope. Even one second misstep can cost you your eyesight!

When to observe Mercury

It is not for nothing that Mercury is called the elusive planet, because the duration of its visibility period is shorter than the rest of the planets. At the same time, Mercury moves in close proximity to the Sun, so residents of the northern regions of Russia, Great Britain, the USA and the Scandinavian countries cannot see it at night. And astronomers from southern countries can observe Mercury after the onset of astronomical night.

It is best to observe Mercury at the moments of its maximum elongation, when the planet moves away from the Sun at a considerable distance and occupies the highest point above the horizon during the morning or evening dawn. In northern latitudes, such periods occur in spring, when Mercury is visualized in the evenings, or in autumn, when the planet is observed early in the morning.

Mercury, Venus and Jupiter in the evening sky

Mercury observations

For novice astronomers, observations of Mercury can be a little disappointing. The appearance of the planet is not very attractive, especially compared to Saturn, Jupiter or the Moon. That is why only a sophisticated observer who is not afraid of difficult tasks can appreciate the true beauty of Mercury.

At the same time, not every experienced astronomer has observed Mercury at least once, since many hours of looking at dim and boring galaxies attracts only the most enthusiastic researchers.

Where to find Mercury?

Where to look for Mercury in the night sky? Well, Mercury can be easily found in the sky with the naked eye. This is usually done within a week before and after its maximum elongation. It is better if the atmosphere at this time is quite calm, and there is no urban smog or high-rise buildings around. In the spring evenings, Mercury can be seen for half an hour after sunset. Then the planet is located above the western part of the horizon. In the twilight sky, the planet can also be visualized, but here the transparency of the atmosphere and the terrain have their value. In the autumn months, during the period of morning visibility, Mercury can be seen half an hour after its rising. The planet is visible to the naked eye for 60 minutes, then it disappears into the sun's rays.

On good days, the brightness of Mercury is -1.3 magnitude. This is 0.1 lower than the parameters of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. Note that the proximity to the horizon and the thick, turbulent layer of air in the light path from the planet make Mercury a twinkling star with a pink or pale pink hue.

The task of observing Mercury is made easier if you have binoculars. It is especially easy to find it just after sunset in a bright sky. Of course, with the help of binoculars you will not be able to see the phases of Mercury, but this is an excellent tool for searching for it and studying such phenomena as approaching stars, other planets, the Moon.

Telescope observations of Mercury

Telescope observations of Mercury are possible for about five weeks before and after its period of maximum visibility. However, he will immediately say that the study of this planet is an extremely difficult task. As noted above, the low position of Mercury above the horizon makes it impossible to fully explore it even with a telescope. The image of the planet is constantly distorted, calming down only at rare moments when the astronomer can see the most interesting details.

The main feature of Mercury is its phases, which you can study with an 80mm telescope. Of course, for this you need to increase the multiplicity of the device to 100x or more. During maximum elongation, the disk of Mercury is illuminated by the Sun by about 50%. And the phases at illumination less than 30% or more than 70% cannot be seen, because during such periods the planet is too close to the Sun.

A more difficult task is to study the details on the Mercury disk. There are many conflicting data about the nature of the tight spots on its surface. Some astronomers say that with the help of an average telescope they can perfectly explore the disk of the planet, others see nothing at all on the surface of Mercury. Of course, not only the quality of the telescope plays a role here, but also the conditions of observation, as well as the experience of the astronomer.

Under excellent atmospheric conditions, using a 100-120 mm telescope at the moments of maximum elongation of the planet, you can see small eclipses near the equator line. But an inexperienced explorer is unlikely to catch such fine details on the surface of the planet. And with a telescope larger than 250mm, you can explore large eclipses far from the equator. Believe me, this is a difficult but extremely exciting activity for training your observer skills.

When to observe Venus

Observing Venus is easier than Mercury, especially if you know where to look for it in the night sky. Although this planet, like Mercury, does not move a significant distance from the Sun, the apparent angular distance here can reach up to 47˚. During maximum visibility, Venus opens its disk for several hours after sunset, when it appears to the layman in the form of the Evening Star, or before dawn - in the form of the Morning Star. Northern Hemisphere astronomers are better off observing Venus at eastern elongation. On spring evenings, Venus is visualized until midnight.

During western or eastern elongation, it is high above the horizon, and its brightness allows observations to be made with minimal effort. Typically, the period of optimal visibility lasts one month.

How to find Venus with the naked eye during the daytime

The easiest way to observe Venus with the naked eye is to find it at the time of its morning sunrise. During periods of optimal visibility under good atmospheric conditions, Venus can be explored for quite a long time. You can make the task easier by blocking the Sun with a natural or artificial barrier: a high-standing tree, building or other object that will block the Sun, but not close Venus. Of course, daytime searches for Venus are impossible without information about its exact location. You can find out this information from any planetarium program.

Naturally, the observation of a small, almost imperceptible patch of light in the daytime sky is not an easy task. But there is a little trick here. First, look at the distant horizon for some time, and only then direct your gaze to the intended area of ​​the sky. This will keep your eyes focused on infinity and you can quickly find the planet you want.

Observations of Venus with binoculars

Binoculars are a great tool, both for searching and for elementary observation of Venus. A large field of view allows you to observe the approach of Venus with other planets and the Moon. Powerful astronomical binoculars 15x70 and 20x100 can also demonstrate the phases of the planet, when the visible part of its disk is more than 40”.

The search for Venus with binoculars is best done during the daytime. However, remember that even a short-term exposure of the Sun to the field of view can deprive you of your vision! Explore Venus when the weather is fine, when distant buildings are visible on the horizon and the sky is deep blue. All this testifies to the excellent transparency of the atmosphere. Your reference point in the search will be the Moon, which is perfectly visible in the daytime sky. But predetermine the day and approximate time when the Moon and Venus will approach at a minimum distance. You can find out with the help of the planetarium program.

Telescope observations of Venus

Daytime observations of Venus

The dazzling brilliance of Venus reduces image contrast even in entry-level telescopes. This makes it difficult to observe its phases and does not allow you to see the details on the surface of the planet. However, there are several ways to reduce the brightness of Venus. First, observations of Venus are best done during the day. Moreover, you can do it throughout the year. The exception is two weeks before and after the upper conjunction of Venus with the Sun.

With modern telescopes equipped with the Go-To system, Venus can be easily located using the Sun alignment method. You can also detect a planet through a telescope on an equatorial mount with setting coordinate circles. Align the mount as closely as possible, and then aim the scope at the sun in a safe manner. After that, you should align the coordinate arcs with the equatorial coordinates of the Sun, and only then you can gradually move the tube, achieving the coincidence of the coordinates of Venus with the coordinates on the setting circles. You can also use a search eyepiece. Note that the search for Venus is facilitated by preliminary adjustment of the telescope focus to distant objects.

Once the search is successful, you can use increased magnification. Stock up on a red or orange filter to increase the contrast between the sky and Venus and bring out the subtle details of the cloud cover. At the moment of inferior conjunction, the planet is visualized as a narrow sickle. Then you can see the horns of Venus, which go around the planetary disk with the thinnest light border. This phenomenon is explained by the scattering of sunlight in the atmosphere of Venus.

Transit of Venus through the Sun

Night observations of Venus

Of course, daytime observations of Venus have a number of advantages, but some astronomers like to study it in the night or twilight sky. At such a time, there is no difficulty in finding the planet. But this plus is combined with some disadvantages. The main one is the dazzling brilliance that makes it impossible to see the finest details on the cloud cover of Venus. You can fight this problem with a special variable density polarizing filter.

The second disadvantage is the low position of Venus above the horizon. Even at the moments of maximum visualization at night, Venus does not rise above the horizon above 30˚. And all astronomers know that astronomical observations of any object are best done when it is at a height of more than 30˚. So the negative impact of the atmosphere on image quality is reduced to zero.

Observation of dark patterns in the clouds of Venus

Most often, Venus appears to astronomers as a uniform gray-whitish disk without any details. However, under excellent atmospheric conditions, a dark zone can be seen along the terminator. Rare astronomers manage to consider some dark formations of a bizarre shape. What factors affect the visibility of details? Today this question remains unanswered. A number of factors play a role, including the quality of the equipment, the conditions of observation and the capabilities of the human eye.

About 30 years ago, the scientific community developed the idea that some people have eyes that are more sensitive to the ultraviolet spectrum. They are able to see dark bands and other formations on Venus. This idea was confirmed by ultraviolet imaging, which showed the presence of details that are invisible in traditional photographs. In addition, do not forget that enthusiastic astronomers are prone to self-deception. In fact, dark details are quite subtle, so it's much easier to convince yourself of their existence than to see them in reality.

It is also impossible to give an unambiguous answer to the question of the minimum power of a telescope for observing details on the surface of Venus. Some astronomers are able to see them in a 100-mm telescope, while others are unsuccessfully trying to do it in more powerful instruments. Some enthusiasts successfully use yellow, purple, blue filters. That is why we advise you to constantly try to look at the interesting features of Venus, train your eyesight and experiment with the power of the telescope.

At the moment, several groups of dark parts have been developed:

• Radial. Dark streaks radiating from a single subsolar point.
• Tape. Dark stripes parallel to each other. Perpendicular to the edges of the horns.
• Wrong. They have an indistinct shape.
• Amorphous. Darkening of a chaotic nature, without any form.

Bright white spots on Venus

If you know how to observe Venus in the sky, then in a number of cases on the planet you can see bright spots near the poles of the planet. These "polar spots" can be observed for several days or weeks. They gradually appear and also gradually disappear. More often they form at the south pole, less often at the north.

anomalies

Schroeter effect

The Schroeter effect is an advance or delay in the moment of dichotomy by several days (from preliminary calculations). It is observed near the lower planets and is due to the scattering of sunlight along the line of the terminator.

Ash Light

The illusion that Venus is visualized in the visage of a narrow sickle. In some cases, one can observe a slight glow of the hidden part of Venus.

Contour roughness

Combination of bright and dark details along the terminator line. This creates the illusion of uneven terrain. Visually, this phenomenon is quite difficult to notice. However, it is clearly visible in astrophotos. On them, Venus looks like a piece of cheese, gnawed by mice around the edges.

What would the surface of Venus look like if all the clouds covering it were removed? On the Magellan spacecraft flying to Venus, radars were installed in order to pull the veil off the true face of Venus and reproduce a detailed image of its surface. as a result, you see a map of Venus in false colors. Mountains are shown in red, valleys are shown in blue. The resolution reached on the map is 3 km. Magellan compiled this map from 1990 to 1994. The areas that Magellan could not observe were later filled in with observations from the Arecibo radio telescope. The large yellow-red region to the north represents the Ishtar Valley, bordering the Maxwell Mountains, the highest mountains on Venus. The large flat highlands on Venus are similar to the continents on Earth. Scientists are extremely interested in studying the geology of Venus, since this planet is very similar to Earth.

Venus is one of the most beautiful and brightest luminaries in the sky (the brilliance of the planet is due to the reflection of sunlight from a powerful cloudy atmosphere). It is no coincidence that it was she who was given the names of the goddesses of love and beauty: in Babylon the planet was called Ishtar, in ancient Greece - Aphrodite, in ancient Rome - Venus. Due to dense clouds, the surface of Venus cannot be seen even from the orbit of its artificial satellite. The relief of its surface can only be studied by radar methods.

Venus is in the morning sky before sunrise for 263 days (the planet's rotation period). Then it approaches the Sun, and it becomes impossible to observe it for 50 days. Then the planet appears in the evening sky at sunset and also shines for 263 days. Venus is hiding again, already for 8 days, as it turns out to be between the Earth and the Sun and is facing us with an unlit side. This is a repeating cycle. The period of revolution of Venus around the Sun is 224.7 days. The sky on Venus is colored orange, turning yellow-green closer to the horizon.

This image, taken by the Galileo spacecraft, shows how thick clouds cover Venus. Venus is very similar to Earth in size and mass, which is why it is often referred to as Earth's sister. However, Venus has a completely different climate. Thick clouds and proximity to the Sun (only Mercury is even closer) make Venus the hottest planet - much hotter than Earth. Man could not have survived there, and no life forms have been found there. When visible in the sky, Venus is usually the brightest object after the Sun and Moon.

More than 20 spacecraft have visited Venus, including Venus 9, which landed on the surface, and Magellan, who used radar to look under the clouds and map the surface. This visible light image of Venus was taken by the Galileo spacecraft, which orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003. Much about Venus remains unknown, including the cause of the mysterious pulses of radio emission.

Webs are large structures of unknown origin that have only been found on the surface of Venus. These structures got the name Webs for their resemblance to the webs that a spider spins. The webs are concentric ovals surrounded by a complex network of cracks and can extend for 200 km. This image was compiled from radar observations by the Magellan spacecraft, which flew around Venus from 1990 to 1994. To date, more than 30 Webs have been found on Venus. Webs can be amazingly combined with volcanoes. However, it is possible that different Webs are formed by different processes.

If it were possible to look at Venus through the eyes of a radar, then we would see such a picture. The picture shows computer-processed observations of the surface of Venus by the Magellan spacecraft. Radar installations were used to map Venus when Magellan flew around our neighbor in 1990-1994. Curious surface details were found in the Magellan data, including large round domes depicted today with a characteristic size of 25 km. It is believed that the domes were formed as a result of volcanic activity, although no one knows for sure. The surface of Venus is so hot and inhospitable that no probe has been there for more than a few minutes.

This image is a piece of the first color panorama of Venus. The panorama was transmitted by a television camera installed on the Soviet Venera-13 lander. The module landed on the surface of Venus by parachute on March 1, 1982. Clouds on Venus are made up of droplets of sulfuric acid, and the temperature on its surface is approximately 482 degrees Celsius, while atmospheric pressure is 92 times higher than Earth's at sea level. Despite these harsh conditions, the Venera 13 lander survived long enough to send a series of images back to Earth and analyze the Venusian soil. Part of the module is visible at the lower right edge of the figure. The first spacecraft to carry a Soviet lander to Venus was Venera-7 (1970). She transmitted information from the surface of another planet for the first time.

Color observations from the Soviet Venera interplanetary probe and radar data from the Magellan spacecraft were used to compile this amazing landscape of Venus. In this computer-generated image, the vertical scale is deliberately enlarged. In the foreground, the edge of the Rift Valley is visible, formed due to the sinking of the crust of Venus. The valley stretches all the way to the base of Mount Gula, a 3.2 km high volcano (on the right in the picture), which is only 720 km away. On the left is another volcano - Mount Sif. Using radar imaging, it is possible to penetrate the clouds that constantly cover the surface of Venus. Using this method, the Magellan apparatus was able to explore more than 98% of the planet's surface, filled with a variety of relief forms.

Often Venus is a transit point for spacecraft that fly to distant gas giant planets on the outskirts of the solar system. Why do they fly to Venus first? Such a gravitational maneuver is necessary in order for the spacecraft to acquire energy during such a short meeting and accelerate due to the gravitational field of the planet, saving some amount of fuel for a long-term interplanetary mission. This colorful picture of Venus was taken by the Galileo spacecraft just after the gravity assist in February 1990, which flew to explore Jupiter. Sulphurous cloud swirls visible in this image of a veiled planet. The bright region is a solar flare on the upper clouds of Venus.

The launch of the automatic spacecraft Venus Express took place in November 2005 thanks to the European Space Agency. In April 2006, the ship flew to Venus. And now Venera Express circles around our sister and sends us pictures. Today's film was taken as the craft flew over the northern hemisphere of Venus in late May 2006. The image was made in ultraviolet light, and therefore is presented in conditional colors.

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Venus goes through different phases. Like our Moon, Venus can appear as a full disk or as a thin crescent. However, Venus, which is often the brightest object in the sky just after sunset or before dawn, has such a small angular size that its phases can only be clearly seen with binoculars or a small telescope. This sequence of images was taken over several months and shows not only the change in phase, but also the change in the apparent angular size of Venus. In the negative image in the middle of the sequence, Venus is in a new phase, which occurred during a rare partial eclipse of the Sun by Venus in 2004.

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If you could look at the north pole of Venus, what would you see? From 1990 to 1994 The Magellan probe was in orbit around Venus. With the help of the radar installed on it, it was possible to look under the dense Venusian clouds and build a topographic map of the surface. In the center is the north pole, and the bright spot below the center is the highest mountains of Maxwell on Venus. Other notable surface features include numerous mountains, crowns, impact craters, tesserae, mountain ranges, and lava flows. Venus is similar in size and mass to the Earth, but unlike the Earth, it has a dense atmosphere, consisting mainly of carbon dioxide. This atmosphere retains heat very efficiently, resulting in surface temperatures typically in excess of 700 degrees Kelvin. At this temperature, lead begins to melt.

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What is happening over the south pole of Venus? To find out, experts spent a long time studying photographs taken by the Venus Express robotic spacecraft during its flybys over the poles of Venus, Earth's superheated twin. To everyone's surprise, the photographs taken by the cameras of the Venus Express apparatus quite recently did not confirm the previous finds. Instead of the previously found double hurricane, an unusual single vortex was discovered in the clouds of the planet. Today's image was taken very recently in infrared light. In the picture, the darker areas correspond to the higher temperatures of the Venusian atmosphere, which means that they show where the clouds are located closer to the surface of the planet. It is not clear why two funnels sometimes appear in vortices at once, and sometimes only one. But the study of the features of their dynamics can shed light on the processes of birth and evolution of terrestrial hurricanes as well. Recently, the Japanese satellite Akatsuki was to join the European spacecraft Venus Express in orbit around Venus. The climate orbiter "Akatsuki", launched by the Japanese Aerospace Agency JAXA on May 21 this year to Venus, missed. According to the plan, he was supposed to start maneuvers in October in order to take the required orbit around Venus. According to JAXA, all the necessary commands were given to him just in time, but yesterday Japan was forced to report a failure. The probe did not enter orbit, but instead began to move away from Venus, starting to move around the Sun.
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The red-hot and cracked surface of Venus is covered with numerous hilly hills. Although the surface of Venus has never been photographed from such a height, such images can be built by digital processing of data obtained from a great distance with a highly sensitive radar. The image covers an area about 100 kilometers wide, located in a volcanic region known as Yavine Corona. The frame shows numerous cracks and faults on the surface. The black bar in the upper right part of the frame corresponds to the area for which there is no data. The temperature and pressure on the surface of Venus are so great that the automatic space station descended to the surface could only work for a few hours.

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The picture was taken in Papago Park in Phoenix, Arizona in April 1998 (author: T. Polakis). The sparkling springs in this picture are the city of Phoenix, the Moon, Venus and Jupiter. Such proximity of these sources is very rare.

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If you get up early in the morning, you can admire Venus shining over the eastern horizon like a morning star. In this pre-dawn skyscape captured on October 7th, 2007 by Jay Welle, Venus is in the upper right corner. Also visible are the crescent moon and Saturn (lower left). Both planets and the Moon can be easily covered with a fist at arm's length, as they are all located in a five-degree sector. Ash Light - Sunlight reflected from the day side of planet Earth illuminates the night side of the Moon. If you look closely at Saturn, you can see a bright dot next to it - its largest satellite Titan

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Wandering the ecliptic along with other planets visible to the naked eye, in early April 2004, Venus passed by the Pleiades star cluster, providing ground-based observers with a remarkable photo opportunity. The Pleiades, cataloged under the number M45, are very beautiful in their own right. Long-exposure images show them immersed in a blue reflection nebula. However, in this image (by David Cortner) taken on the evening of April 3rd, the bright Venus approached the Seven Sisters and eclipsed the faint glow of the cosmic cloud. This picture serves as a clear illustration of cosmic contrasts: for example, Venus looks about 700 times brighter than Alcyone, the brightest star in the Pleiades. If Venus is 5 light minutes from Earth, then Alcyone and the other stars of the Pleiades are about 400 light years away. Venus, formed from the same collapsed nebula that gave birth to the Sun, is about 4.5 billion years old. The stars in the Pleiades seem to be only a hundred million years old.

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In early June 2004, a rare event occurred - the transit of Venus across the solar disk. The photographs of this event are among the most expressive in the history of astronomical surveys. Wherever the passage could be observed, scientific and artistic surveys were carried out: in Europe, in most of Asia, Africa and North America. In scientific terms, there is a discussion about the so-called "black drop effect": scientists believe that its occurrence is due to the transparency characteristics of the camera on the telescope, and not the atmosphere of Venus. From an artistic point of view, images fall into several categories. The first show the transit of Venus against the background of a detailed image of the solar disk. Others are interesting because of double coincidences: for example, Venus and the silhouette of an airplane against the background of the Sun, or Venus and the ISS in low orbit around the Earth. Third images, like the one taken in North Carolina (USA) and presented to your attention (author: David Cortner), combine the transit of Venus across the disk of the Sun and a picturesque cloudy picture. In this image, the disk of the planet Venus at first glance can be confused with a small and unusually round cloud.

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At the end of Venus's transit of the Sun on June 8, 2004, astronomers captured this amazing close-up. The silhouette of Venus is clearly visible on the bright surface of the Sun. Against the background of the blackness of space, a thin arc is visible along the edge of the planet, which arose due to the refraction of sunlight in Venusian atmosphere. The arc is part of a luminous atmospheric halo, which was first seen when the planet passed across the solar disk in 1761. Then observations of such a halo served as evidence in favor of the existence of an atmosphere on Venus. The image was taken with a 1-meter Swedish solar telescope located on the island of La Palma, one of the Canary Islands. The final picture was taken by Mats Lofdahl in the presence of Dan Kiselman, Goran Scharmer, Kai Langhans, Peter Dettori, employees of the Institute of Solar Physics of the Swedish Academy of Sciences.

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On this day, it seemed that two of the three celestial bodies visible in the daytime collided. In fact, the Moon passed in front of Venus. The occultation was captured in Switzerland in the hours before sunset. A few minutes after this picture was taken, the crescent Moon, visible to the right, eclipsed the bulging Venus. Clouds are visible at the left edge of the image, which at some point threatened to hide the observed phenomenon. 90 minutes later, Venus appeared to the right from behind the bright crescent Moon.

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Sometimes wonderful things happen in the sky above our heads. For example, in early September 2010, the Moon and Venus were very close to each other in the sky and brought pleasure to sky lovers around the world. From some places it was possible to observe an even more colorful picture. Today's photo was taken in Spain (author: Isaac Gutierez Pascual). Here, against the background of the dark blue evening sky, the moon and Venus pose. In the foreground, dark storm clouds stretched across the bottom of the photograph, with a white anvil-shaped cloud hovering above them. Dark dots against the background of clouds are a flock of birds flying by. However, very soon after the photo was taken, the birds flew away, the thunderstorm ended, and Venus and the Moon disappeared below the horizon. Now Venus and the Moon have already diverged by a large angular distance. Although Venus was visible in the evening sky for the whole of September.

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On a calm morning, the pre-dawn sky at the eastern horizon is reflected in calm water. The photo was taken on May 22nd from the banks of the Mullika River, in a forested area known as "Pine Barrens", in southern New Jersey on the US East Coast (author: Jerry Lodrigass). To the left above the horizon is a narrow crescent of the old moon illuminated by the Sun. Mars is near the center of the picture, and bright Venus sparkles to the right. Like the earthly lights on the riverbank, the bright sky beacons are reflected in the water in the foreground. Most of the Moon is illuminated by ashen light - the light reflected from the illuminated side of the planet Earth, so details of it can be seen on the dark part of the lunar surface.

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Spectacular colors and dramatic clouds seen at sunset on Monday 1 December 2008 in the western sky were reflected in the waters of Brisbane Bay on the Central Coast of New South Wales in Australia. A remarkable conjunction of the lunar crescent, Venus and Jupiter could also be observed in the sky, which together looked like a smiling face. The convergence of two bright planets and the Moon has attracted the attention of skygazers all over planet Earth. Astronomer Mike Salway put a lot of effort into capturing this magnificent view, having endured mosquito bites and rainstorms on the marshy shore. From his point of view, in the southern hemisphere, the brilliant Venus was above the rest of the luminaries from this celestial group.

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On December 1st, 2008 the bright planets Venus and Jupiter converged on the moon's young crescent, an impressive celestial scene that could be seen in the early evening around the world. However, from some places it was clear that the Moon passed directly in front of Venus - Venus was covered by the Moon, which for some time changed the picture of the approach of heavenly bodies. This twilight photo was taken from Wheeldon, Austria, showing the brilliant evening star about five minutes before it disappeared behind the dark limb of the moon and disappeared from view for more than an hour. The image was obtained by superimposing long and short exposures, as a result, it shows the details of the lunar surface, illuminated both by weak ashy light and by the bright light of the Sun. The inset shows an image taken later, when dazzling Venus reappeared from behind a bright lunar crescent in the darkened sky over Breil-sur-Roya in southeastern France. Jupiter, which is visible above and to the right, about three degrees from Venus and the Moon, is surrounded by its own satellites, which in the photo look like tiny glowing pinheads on either side of the bright planet. Authors: Johann Schedler (Panther Observatory) Inset: Vincent Jacques.

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This celestial scene was captured after sunset on November 30th, 2008 from the Mount Wilson Observatory, near Los Angeles, California, USA. Above all in the sky is the most distant of the three luminaries, the planet Jupiter. Venus is much closer to us, it is visible below and to the left of Jupiter and seems unusually blue, as it shines through clouds in the earth's atmosphere. To the right, above the horizon, the growing crescent of our satellite, the Moon, shines. Thin clouds illuminated by the moon appear to be colored in an unusual orange color. At the bottom of the picture are the hills of Los Angeles, in some places covered in light fog, and skyscrapers in the city center are visible near the left edge. The conjunction of Venus and Jupiter will be visible in the western sky just after sunset for most of this month. However, just a few hours after this image was taken, the Moon approached the celestial duo, briefly eclipsed Venus, and continued its path across the sky.

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From the windswept summit of Mauna Kea on Hawaii's Big Island, you can enjoy a similar view of the night world. The silhouette of the peak of the mountain, reaching a height of about 4100 meters, is visible against the background, captured at dusk in early December 2005 by Serge Brunier. A volcanic peak rises above a sea of ​​storm clouds illuminated by the bright moon. The planet Venus shines near the Moon like a brilliant evening star. The picture also includes a faint milky white streak, our Galaxy's disk of stars and cosmic dust clouds, stretching from the horizon into the sky along the right edge of the photograph.

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On the night of May 19, 2007, the Earth's satellite Moon and the planet Venus were visible in the same part of the sky, and the smallest distance between them was less than one degree. The connection was captured in this photograph taken from around Quebec City in Quebec, Canada by Jay Oulle. Venus is visible at the bottom left of the picture. Rays that appear to be coming from Venus are actually due to diffraction in the chamber itself. The image is so clear that the craters on the moon are clearly visible. Of course, the true physical distance between two celestial bodies was not unusually small. The apparent connection is actually an optical illusion that occurs when projected onto the celestial sphere. Although the Moon passes near Venus every month, such close encounters in the evening sky are much rarer.

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The pairing of the two brightest objects in the night sky is a wonderful sight for those who enjoy looking at the night sky just after sunset.
In the image shown here, this phenomenon was photographed through the clouds over the coast of Corona del Mar in California, USA. More precisely, the Moon passed about three degrees from Venus on February 23, 2004. Posted by Wally Pacholka.
Russian and French scientists intend to combine the Venus exploration program: the possibility of combining the Russian Venera-D mission, which is scheduled to be launched in 2015-2016, with the European exploration program of this planet is currently being considered.

Seeing this planet at dawn in the glow of the dawn, the Romans called it Lucifer, which means "shining." In the evening, when she stood out with her brilliance against the background of the sunset, she and Vesper, that is, the "evening star." In fact, we are talking about the same celestial body - the planet Venus, for many centuries in a row, because of the amazing radiance, people associated Venus with beauty and love, but today, thanks to modern probes, we know that this is a terrible world in which not a single person would not have lived even a fraction of a second. This is a place where the highest temperatures and monstrous pressure reign (92 times higher than the earth), and an extremely dense atmosphere is oversaturated with carbon dioxide, which is completely unsuitable for life. In a word, Venus is much more like Dante's hell than paradise.

HOT PLANET

When viewed with the naked eye, Venus is striking in its brightness, thanks to which it has always been considered a symbol of beauty. But now we know that this idea has little to do with the realities of the planet itself. Venus hides its secrets under an insurmountable thickness of the atmosphere, which does not allow any optical instrument to penetrate to its surface. In the lower layers, the air is almost motionless and is under such pressure, which on Earth is observed only in the ocean depths.

Hotter than Mercury

The Venusian atmosphere, rich in carbon dioxide, which causes a greenhouse effect, has led to a growing warming of the entire planet and the establishment of a truly hellish temperature. Venus is even hotter than Mercury, despite being much closer to the Sun. On the entire surface of Venus, the temperature exceeds 440 ° C also because the atmosphere not only accumulates heat, but also distributes it to the poles and to the night hemisphere.

The dimensions of Venus are comparable to those on Earth: its diameter is only 650 km smaller than the diameter of our planet. But the appearance of Venus is completely different. There is no liquid water there due to the strongest heating. As for the surface, its study with the help of a radar showed that it is rather flat: the height difference on 65% of the territory does not reach even 2 km.

Incredibly long day

Due to the continuous layer of clouds, atmospheric conditions are almost the same on the entire surface of Venus, but if this layer were not there, we would observe a picture that is very different from the earth. Since Venus' axis of rotation is practically devoid of tilt, there are no seasons on this planet, and the heat received by different areas depends only on their latitude. If a Venusian year of 224.7 Earth days doesn't seem so long, then what about the Venusian days, which seem to be just endless? The fact is that Venus makes a full rotation around its axis in 243 Earth days, that is, longer than its year! Therefore, a solar day on it lasts 116.7 Earth days. Don't be surprised: Venus is in a reverse rotation, that is, it rotates in the opposite direction from the normal movement of the planets in the solar system.

HOW TO RECOGNIZE VENUS IN THE SKY

It is difficult to confuse Venus with other celestial bodies, since in brightness it is second only to the Sun and the Moon. As for the maximum brightness, it is -4.4 m. The light of the planet is so bright that it forms shadows and faint reflections on the surface of the sea. With a cloudless sky, Venus can be seen even in broad daylight, provided that it is at a sufficiently large angular distance from the Sun. So finding the second planet of the solar system in the sky is not difficult at all. It should be borne in mind that Venus is visible only before dawn and at sunset.

Why does she shine so bright?

The brightness of Venus is not due only to the fact that it is close to the Sun. The real reason is its albedo, that is, the ability to reflect light coming from the Sun. Venus has the highest albedo of any planet in the solar system. The atmosphere of Venus reflects two-thirds of the sun's light. All this proves that the greenhouse effect is indeed powerful on Venus, given the amount of energy absorbed by the planet.

Elongations and connections

Even in ancient times, people noticed that Venus and Mercury move differently than other planets. This feature remained a mystery until the discovery of the heliocentric system: it helped to explain the strange movement of Venus and Mercury by the fact that the orbits of these two planets are inside the earth's orbit. Because of this, when viewed from Earth, the so-called inner planets seem to zigzag around the Sun, from which they never deviate by a large angular distance. The most favorable periods for observing these planets are called "maximum elongations". They correspond to the moment when the planets move away from the Sun to the greatest angular distance. In particular, when Venus is at its maximum elongation, it moves away from the Sun by an angular distance reaching 48 °, and it is visible in the sky almost 4 hours after sunset (at eastern elongation) or 4 hours before dawn (at western elongation). When the maximum elongation is completed, the angular distance between Venus and the Sun begins to decrease, and the periods during which the planet can be observed in the sky become shorter and shorter. When Venus finally reaches conjunction, observation becomes almost impossible due to its proximity to our star.

BRIGHT BUT MISTY

When viewed through your telescope, the planet, which the ancient Greeks dedicated to the most beautiful of goddesses, looks like a red-hot disk of white-gray color, while its circumference will almost never appear clear due to the change of phases. Venus is considered one of the most difficult planets to observe through a telescope. And the point is not at all the difficulty of pointing the telescope in the right direction. On the contrary, Venus is very bright! The problem is that the dense layer of clouds enveloping the planet makes its observed disk insufficiently contrasting. Only with the help of some tricks can you see at least fleeting details.

Phases like the moon

Like our Moon, Venus shows us either a crescent or a convex disk. The disk of Venus is visible in its entirety only when the planet is located near the superior conjunction. However, in this case, observation of it is complicated by small angular dimensions (at this time the planet is at its maximum distance from us) and too small an angular distance from the Sun.

The same difficulty arises when Venus reaches inferior conjunction. But in this case, the planet will turn its unlit hemisphere towards the Earth, and therefore we will be able to observe only a crescent, although it reaches an impressive angular size (about 60 °).

daytime observations

To see any details on the surface of Venus, you need to increase the contrast and also reduce the blinding effect from the excessive brightness of the planet, for which it is recommended to use color filters, such as the moon filter that comes with your telescope. And to increase the contrast, it is best to observe at dusk or even during the day. This will soften the difference in brightness between the disk of the planet and the celestial background, and the pale blurry spots on the surface of Venus will appear somewhat clearer. Daytime observation, among other things, provides a noticeable advantage - the ability to point the telescope to a greater height above the horizon (the fact is that the insignificant angular distance separating Venus from the Sun leads to the fact that the planet reaches its greatest height above the horizon during the day). This entails a reduction in atmospheric turbulence and, accordingly, an improvement in visibility. On the other hand, in bright daylight, finding a planet in the sky is not easy. This difficulty can be overcome by setting the celestial coordinates of Venus on the mounting circles that came with your telescope.

Not at all twins

Why on Venus, whose size, mass and density are so similar to those of the Earth, did atmospheric conditions form so different from those of the Earth? The answer probably lies in the difference in distance from the Sun. Venus is located closer to our star, and therefore was exposed to higher temperatures, due to which liquid water disappeared on the planet and two gases were released that create a powerful greenhouse effect: water vapor and carbon dioxide. While on Earth a fairly large amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) is concentrated in carbonaceous rocks, on Venus all carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere.

As for water vapor, ultraviolet solar radiation very quickly decomposed it into hydrogen, which immediately dissipated in space, and oxygen, which later became part of the surface rocks. Therefore, today its concentration in the Venusian clouds is about 0.01%, that is, it is minimal.

On Earth, water vapor is responsible for the formation of clouds. And on Venus, clouds are more like smog. They appeared as a result of a chemical reaction involving sulfur compounds, such as sulfuric anhydride, in the atmosphere formed under the influence of volcanic eruptions.

Desert or swamp?

Many past astronomers have tried in vain to map the surface of Venus based on shifting dark features, most likely caused by atmospheric events. At the end of the 19th century, two theories were the most popular: the first represented Venus as an exceptionally wet world, consisting of endless swamps inhabited by giant plants and water creatures. The second theory described the planet as a scorched desert with incessant winds that raised sandstorms. By 1950, the mystery had been solved through the use of new research technologies. On the one hand, the study of the radio emission of Venus made it possible to learn that extremely high temperatures reign there, and on the other hand, astronomers who studied the planet’s atmosphere, such as the French scientist Audouin Dollfus, were able to determine its chemical composition.

RESEARCH

On December 14, 1962, the American probe "Mariner-2" flew near the orbit of Venus and officially opened the era of space exploration of the planets of the solar system. If NASA used the Mariner missions to study Venus from the outside, then the very ambitious goal of the Soviet missions was to lower the probe to the surface of the planet. Despite the monstrous atmospheric conditions, already in 1970, the Venera-7 probe was able to transmit information from the Venusian surface for as long as 23 minutes until it broke under the influence of incredible heat (the probe recorded a temperature of 475 ° C).

Northern hemisphere of Venus

"Magellan" and the geography of Venus After completing the Mariner missions, NASA decided to rely on probes that act like "space submarines", that is, capable of probing the Venusian surface from above using radio signals, whose reflected echo was supposed to serve to create a map of this planet . Following the first successes of the Pioneer Venus probes, the geography of Venus finally ceased to be a mystery thanks to the long work of the Magellan probe, which began on August 10, 1990. By the time Magellan completed its research activities, it had mapped 98% of the surface of Venus, most of which turned out to be flat. The artificially colored image obtained by the probe shows that only 8% of the planet's territory rises above the surface by more than 2 km in height. There are three small continents on the surface. Three continental regions - Ishtar, Beta Region and Aphrodite - are separated by huge plains of basalt origin, often crossed by faults and folds.

"Venus Express"

Despite the successes achieved, the second planet of the solar system still holds many secrets. To answer the remaining questions, Venus was challenged by a new player. We are talking about the European Space Agency, which launched the Venus Express interplanetary probe. The launch took place on November 9, 2005, and Venera Express reached its target on April 11, 2006. Having entered orbit around the planet, the probe began its work, and we received truly unique pictures of the Venusian atmosphere.

Observations from orbit showed the presence of an atmospheric vortex near the south pole, while analysis of the dark hemisphere revealed that the gaseous envelope surrounding Venus extends far beyond the limits known to date.

Instruction

Five were discovered in ancient times, when there were no telescopes. The nature of their movements across the sky is different from movement. Based on this, people have separated from millions of stars.
There are inner and outer planets. Mercury and Venus are closer to the Sun than Earth. Their location in the sky is always close to the horizon. Accordingly, these two planets are inner planets. Also, Mercury and Venus seem to follow the sun. Nevertheless, they are visible to the naked eye at the moments of maximum elongation, i.e. during the maximum angle from the Sun. These planets can be seen at dusk, shortly after sunset or in the wee hours. Venus is much larger than Mercury, much brighter and easier to spot. When Venus appears in the sky, no star can compare with it in brightness. Venus shines with white light. If you look closely at it, for example, with binoculars or a telescope, you will notice that it has different phases, like the moon. Venus can be observed in the form of a sickle, decreasing or increasing. In early 2011, Venus was visible for about three hours before dawn. It will be possible to observe it again with the naked eye from the end of October. It will be visible in the evening, in the southwest in the constellation of Libra. Toward the end of the year, its brightness and duration of the visibility period will increase. Mercury is mostly visible during twilight and is quite difficult to spot. For this, the ancients called him the god of twilight. In 2011 it can be seen from the end of August for about a month. The planet will first be visible in the morning hours in the constellation of Cancer, and then move into the constellation of Leo.

The outer planets are, respectively, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. They are best observed during moments of confrontation, i.e. when the Earth is on the same straight line between the planet and the Sun. They can stay in the sky all night. During the maximum brightness of Mars (-2.91m), this planet is second only to Venus (-4m) and Jupiter (-2.94m). In the evening and in the morning, Mars is visible as a red-orange "star", and in the middle of the night it changes light to yellow. In 2011, Mars will appear in the sky in the summer and disappear again at the end of November. In August, the planet can be seen in the constellation of Gemini, and by September it will move into the constellation of Cancer. Jupiter is often seen in the sky as one of the brightest stars. Despite this, it is interesting to observe it with binoculars or a telescope. In this case, the disk surrounding the planet and the four largest satellites become visible. The planet will appear in June 2011 in the eastern part of the sky. Jupiter will get closer to the Sun, gradually losing its brightness. Closer to autumn, its brightness will begin to increase again. At the end of October, Jupiter will enter opposition. Accordingly, the autumn months and December are the best time to observe the planet.
From mid-April to early June, Saturn is the only planet visible to the naked eye. The next favorable period for observing Saturn will be November. This planet moves slowly across the sky and will be in the constellation Virgo all year round.