July 9 - Tonight's Cool Conjunction

July 9 Tonight's Cool Conjunction by:

Tonight … Venus and Regulus conjunction​​ Look west after sunset to see Venus in conjunction with Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo the Lion. Dazzling planet! Fainter star near it ... very cool to see. Fragments of asteroid 2018 LA found in Botswana ​​ Astronomers detected this small asteroid just 8 hours before it struck Earth's atmosphere over southern Africa on June 2, producing a terrific explosion. Now researchers report finding its meteorites. Here's how much smaller the sun looks at aphelion​​ We passed aphelion, Earth's farthest point in orbit around the sun, on July 6. The eye can't detect it, but a camera shows that the sun around now appears at its smallest in our sky. Composite image and story by Peter Lowenstein. From Pluto, Earth to transit sun on July 12​​ Earth transits seen from Pluto are rare. It hasn't happened since 1931, a year after Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto. It won't happen again for 161 years.

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Here's how much smaller the sun looks at aphelion​​ Composite image showing the size of the sun at aphelion (our farthest point) and perihelion (our closest point), via Peter Lowenstein.  The apparent size difference is about 3.6 percent.

Coming up … Venus and Regulus conjunction On Monday - and for several evenings after that - Venus and Regulus will fit easily inside a single binocular field. After tonight, the gap between them will widen, as Venus climbs upward and Regulus sinks into the sunset.  Submit your photo to EarthSky here! Did a friend forward EarthSkyNews to you? Click here to get your own subscription!

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