NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection

Moon And Venus Share The Sky

July is drawing to a close and in the past few days, some early morning risers [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] could have looked east and seen a crescent Moon sharing the pre-dawn [ http://science.nasa…] skies with planets Jupiter and Saturn. Planet Mercury will also pass about 2 degrees from the thin waning crescent Moon [ http://aa.usno.navy…] just before sunrise near the eastern horizon on Saturday, July 29. And finally, on the evening of July 31st, Venus will take its turn near the crescent Moon [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. But this time it will be a day-old crescent Moon near the western horizon, shortly after sunset [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. In fact [ http://pages.prodig…], on July 31 (August 1 Universal Time) the Moon will occult [ http://www.skypub.c…0001lunarocc.html ] (pass in front of) Venus for northwestern observers [ http://www.skypub.c…0008moonvenus_big.jp g ] in North America. This telescopic picture taken on 31 December 1997, shows a lovely young crescent Moon and brilliant crescent Venus in [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] the early evening sky near Bursa, Turkey [ http://www.mersina.…].

And what about the Sun? On Sunday, July 30, a partial eclipse of the Sun [ http://sunearth.gsf…PSE2000Jul31.html ] will be visible from some locations [ http://sunearth.gsf…PSE2000Jul.gif ] in North America.

Tunc Tezel [ mailto:cebbt@superon line.com ]

occultation

moon

venus

conjunction

31 December 1997

Mercury

Saturn

Jupiter

Venus

Turkey

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Washington, D.C.

Moon

Sun

Mercury

Saturn

Jupiter

Venus

Dawn

moon

1997

http://antwrp.gsfc.…

SPD-APOD-ap000728