[MIham] Venus and the Pleiades

[Frank]

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.

            --... ...--  ..-. .-. .- -. -.-   -. ---.. ..- ...- ..


          Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all.

                                                                        --Jo
hn F. Kennedy--







       Checkout My Place on the Web @ http://www.qsl.net/n8uvi