The Moon, Venus & Jupiter reflected in the still waters of Eagle Harbor, June 17. Photo Credit: Frank Petrie
On May 30, and again on June 20, a number of BPO members and guests gathered on Sundial Hill for star parties. The thing about star parties scheduled around the summer solstice is that it takes a very long time for the sky to get fully dark: sunset around 9:10 PM with astronomical twilight ending over 3 hours later! But these enthusiastic stargazers took the opportunity of warm clear weather to observe some very interesting things in the gradually darkening twilight sky.
The ongoing close approach of Venus and Jupiter in the western sky was the highlight of both evenings (and the intervening ones). Their conjunction occurred overnight on June 8-9, an event we missed due to cloudy weather, but both the preceding approach and following separation of that close passage was fascinating to watch as the two planets’ relative position and distance changed from one evening to the next. Observers experienced a real sense of the three-dimensional nature of our solar system!
