Planets on Display

Those of you that follow astronomical events may know already that the next couple of days feature a conjunction of Venus and Jupiter in the early evening sky. The location is eastern Sagittarius east of the TeaPot and near the kite-shaped asterm  with Omega-Sgr and 59Sgr. The young crescent earthshined moon will join them tomorrow and Monday.

Also, Uranus is easy to find for the next few weeks because it is close to the star of nearly the same magnitude 96-Agr in Aquirius. This is north of the Waterjar at about the same RA.

My eyes are bad and getting worse because of a cataract. I used to just be able to  make out Jupiter's moons in the 7X35 binoculars I have, but I can't focus that well now. But after finding out where Uranus was tonight, I could easily distinguish it from the star. They look like an optical double, and for test I looked at Eps-Lyr over in the western sky next to Vega, which I could resolve in the binoculars. I was impressed when my son, who was then 16, said that he could resolve this pair unaided. That is a good vision test.