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2013-Worst evening apparition of Venus ever?


trynda1701

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I posted this over on the Society of Poplular Astronomy forum, and thought I'd post it here as well.

Since Venus was passing Jupiter and Mercury in the spring, the evening star has hugged the western horizon with a vengance! I tried to see the triple conjunction, and failed miserably. Only a few weeks after the fact, without trying, did I see a lone Venus with a totally clear western horizon, going to a local Tesco late one evening!

Since then, it has been crawling along that horizon, till only two weeks ago, I finally saw it again, now in the SW, VERY low down. I've seen similar low apparition, but usually I can see Venus from an upstairs southwest facing window above the row of houses directly behind ours. But not this year!

So, can anyone else here say they've seen a worse evening apparition of Venus? Is the current one one of the worst possible?

Discuss! :)

Mark

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I'm sure there have been worse, but it does amaze me that a planet that appeared so spectacularly last year, could fail so badly this year. I think the outlook gets a little better as winter begins, but then Venus races back to the Sun again

David

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You're a mind-reader Mark; I've been thinking exactly the same thing for a few weeks now... had a couple of clear western horizons since the star of Oct, straight after sunset, but couldn't see it! And yet saw the triple conjunction quite easily back in May... :shocked:

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I've had it in the back of my mind it's been visible for a few months but I was yet to see it to my surprise, but have clearly seen it at least twice this week. Thus I'm presuming it's been on the rise lately. We have though been treated to some lovely sightings of the planet in the last few years, although it seems this years' is not one of them.

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I had a look at it through the scope last night. It was a multi coloured boiling blob, just about identifiable with the correct phase. So, I agree with you, very low down.

Stu

That is a very good description of what I saw. I also saw Venus yesterday, the area of the sky it is in is very difficult for me to view, I was initially pleased to see it but after getting the scope out, I was surprised at what I saw. I spent a lot of time playing with the focus knob but persevered to identify the phase.

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