Explanation:
Brilliant Venus now shines in
western
skies at twilight.
Seen as the prominent evening star, the planet is a
tantalizing
celestial beacon even for casual skygazers.
Venus can offer less than satisfying telescopic views though.
The planet is shrouded
in reflective clouds that appear
bright but featureless at the eyepiece.
Still, careful imaging with a series of color filters,
as used in these composite images, can reveal subtle cloud patterns.
Captured early
last month from a backyard observatory in Manchester,
New Hampshire, USA, the images are based on video camera frames.
The data was recorded through near-ultraviolet, green,
and
near-infrared filters (left), and
red, green, and blue filters while Venus stood high above the
western horizon just before sunset.
This season's evening apparition of Venus is the best one for northern
hemisphere observers in 7 years.
It will ultimately end with a
solar transit of the planet, the
last one to occur in your lifetime, on June 5/6.
