Venus and Spica, Friday night

Venus is passing south of Spica.

They will be closest, a little more than a degree, on Sep. 1 about 12 hours Universal Time, so Venus will appear just southwest of the star in the evening of Aug. 31 and just southeast of it on the next evening.

In the picture, the arrow through Venus shows its movement (relative to the starry background) from two days before to two days after.

Venus is now shining at magnitude -4.4, and is 0.58 of an astronomical unit (Sun-Eart distance) away.  The white star, the “spike” of wheat held in the hand of Virgo, is about 150 times fainter at magnitude 1, but is about 250 light-years away.

Earth is rolling away from the west point on the horizon, and is traveling in space away from the point in the sky marked “antapex of Earth’s way.”

 

3 thoughts on “Venus and Spica, Friday night”

    1. Of course. Forgive me. Correction made. Rotation reversed.
      Thje westward rolling wave
      Of people lying down…

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