The bright morning star crosses from Aries into Taurus, closing in on Uranus for a conjunction later this week.
Venus moves into far western Taurus this morning, standing to the lower right of the Pleiades and closing in on Uranus. Credit: Stellarium
Venus is a bright morning star dominating the predawn sky at magnitude –4.2. Today, the blazing planet moves from Aries into Taurus, standing at a point just less than 10° southwest of the Pleiades star cluster. The Pleiades, also cataloged as M45, is one of the easiest-to-spot clusters in the sky, shining at magnitude 1.6 and spanning some 110’.
About 4.3° south of the Pleiades is Uranus. Glowing a faint magnitude 5.8, it’s just at the edge of naked-eye visibility under exquisite conditions and is best seen with binoculars or a telescope. The ice giant spans just 3”, but that should still be enough to appear as a small but noticeable disk, rather than a pinpoint like a star.
Turn that telescope back on Venus and you’ll see a much larger disk 18” across. As an inferior planet closer to the Sun than Earth, Venus also appears to go through phases and now presents a 63-percent-lit gibbous.
Venus will continue trekking eastward deeper into Taurus this week, passing 2° from Uranus on July 3 and offering a bright signpost to help you find the planet at the end of the week.
Sunrise: 5:34 A.M.
Sunset: 8:33 P.M.
Moonrise: 8:55 A.M.
Moonset: 11:17 P.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent (13%)
*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40° N 90° W. The Moon’s illumination is given at 12 P.M. local time from the same location.
For a look ahead at more upcoming sky events, check out our full Sky This Week column.
