Southern Astro

Adventures in backyard astronomy from the Southern hemisphere

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      • NGC2997
      • NGC4594 (M104) – The Sombrero Galaxy
      • NGC5128 Centaurus A
      • NGC5236 (M83) The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy
    • Emission Nebula
      • NGC1976 (M42) – The Orion Nebula
      • NGC2237 – Rosette Nebula
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      • NGC3372 – The Carina Nebula
      • NGC3576 Statue of Liberty Nebula
      • NGC6164 – The Dragon’s Egg
      • NGC6188 – Dragons of Ara
      • NGC6514 (M20) – The Triffid Nebula
      • NGC6523 (M8) – The Lagoon Nebula
      • NGC6611 (M16) – The Eagle Nebula
      • NGC6618 (M17) – The Swan Nebula
      • IC2944 – Running Chicken Nebula
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      • M27 The Dumbell Nebula
      • M57 The Ring Nebula
      • NGC7293 The Helix Nebula
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      • B33 Horse Head
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    • M8 The Lagoon Nebula
    • M16 The Eagle Nebula
    • M17 The Swan Nebula
    • M20 The Triffid Nebula
    • M27 The Dumbell Nebula
    • M42 The Orion Nebula
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    • M104 – The Sombrero Galaxy
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Venus

Named after the Roman godess of love and beauty, Venus is the second planet from the sun and orbits with an average radius of approximately 0.723 AU (or 108 million km) with a very low eccentricity to the orbit of 0.0067.

Due to it’s closer proximity to the sun the Venusian year is correspondingly shorter at 224.7 Earth days

While similar in size to Earth and being a terrestrial (rocky) planet, Venus is vastly different due to the dense atmosphere comprised mostly of Carbon Dioxide (96%). This atmospheric composition also leads to significant greenhouse effects making Venus hotter than Mercury, despite being further from the Sun, with a mean temperature of 735K).

All that is visible from Earth is the tops of the dense atmosphere and the highly reflective clouds of sulfuric acid. Due due to its position closer to the sun, it has a maximum angular seperation (elongation) from the sun of 47.8 degrees, therefore when visible it is either in the evening or dawn sky and Venus displays phases similar to that of the Moon.

Planetary 30th May 2015

Some planetary images testing out the performance of the 3x barlow.

June 1, 2015 in Jupiter, Moon, Solar System, Venus.

Gallery

Full moon Aug 14 moon_2015_05_23 Cat's Paw colorised 1_M16 M20_DC HOO Obs-CEM60 20200801_155711

Current Moon Phase


Waning Gibbous Moon
Waning Gibbous Moon

The moon is currently in Capricorn
The moon is 18 days old

Distance: 61 earth radii
Ecliptic latitude: -3 degrees
Ecliptic longitude: 299 degrees
Joe's

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