Two planets and a spaceship

Last night I spotted two planets and a spaceship!

Venus has been shining brightly in our skies for some months, although will soon disappear from view. You can't miss it. It's the brightest object in our skies low in the west in the early evening and I've previously taken a photo of the planet when it was in conjunction with the star cluster Pleiades.

Venus/Pleiades 4th March 2020

In the last few days though, it's been joined in the sky by Mercury the planet nearest to the sun. It's a rare sight - for a start it never gets about 28º from the western horizon making it difficult to see unless you've got a great field of view, and secondly it's usually not very bright meaning observing it requires binocular or a telescope. Currently though, it's easily observable with the naked eye - but not for long. This photo was taken by someone I follow on Twitter last evening (@susan_snowy) and shows both planets well.

Venus (top left) and Mercury (bottom right)
Copyright @susan_snowy

Over the next few days as Venus sinks lower in the skies there will be a "conjunction" (a visual coming together, even though they're actually about 31 million miles apart).

It's worth getting out and having a look as soon as it gets dark - I was out at 10pm last night to see this whilst preparing for the International Space Station (ISS) to pass overhead.  Mercury is elusive, so to be able to tick this one off your "I've seen list" is well worth doing.

I've posted about the ISS several times previously, but make no apologies for doing so again. This is a real spaceship, around 250 miles up, going at 17,500 mile per hour, orbiting the earth once every 90 minutes. Currently with a crew of three (two Russians and an American). Last night's pass was epic. It appears (as it almost always does from the west/west south west and flew overhead visible as a very bright yellow dot. The pass was six minutes in length and the brightness didn't fade until it it disappears from view over some houses. Sometimes it fades quickly depending on where the sun is (it's the sun reflecting off the station that makes it visible). My photo below, isn't the best ISS shot I've ever taken (got my exposure settings wrong), but who cares!

ISS flying overhead
150 second time-lapse:
Tripod mounted Canon 100D
18-50mm lens
ISO100
f11
remote shutter

Still in space, next week (May 27th to be exact) sees the launch of Space X's Crew Dragon, on top of a Falcon 9 rocket with two American astronauts who will fly to and from the ISS. This is a historic launch and flight as it's the first time American astronauts will have launched from US soils since the shuttle programme ended in 2011, relying on Russian Soyuz craft ever since.

This flight is called "Demo-2", and follows "Demo-1" an unmanned flight to the ISS just over a year ago. The two astronauts, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken are NASA veterans. They might not have time for Twitter at the moment, but can both be followed at @Astro_Doug and @AstroBehnken respectively. whilst there have been test flights, you've got to admit it takes some balls to be sat on top of a rocket - especially in an historic first. The launch will undoubtedly be available to view on stream, probably via Nasa and Space X.

Until tomorrow....

#isolationlife
#stayhomesavelives