Every 8 years on mid-April evenings, Venus skirts the Pleiades just as it’s doing last week.
Friday and Saturday the two were only 2.5° apart and also lighted green by sharp auroral rays!
Photo by Jerry Magnum Porsbjer on April 11, 2015 in Sweden
Sky watchers have been enjoying the close encounter between Venus and the Pleiades star cluster around the world.
On Saturday, April 11, 2015, Venus was tinted in green by auroral rays which illuminated Venus and the Pleiades like sharp beams.
You don’t have to live in the Arctic for a beautiful view of the conjunction. When the sun goes down tonight, step outside and look west as the sky fades to black. The bright Goddess of Love is only a few degrees from the delicate Seven Sisters.
As already said, this space phenomenon only occurs every eight years… Think back to April 2007 and you might remember a similar passage; a repeat will happen in April 2023… Write it in your agenda!
