Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2020 April 15

                              A Cosmic Triangle
                  Image Credit & Copyright: Scott Aspinall

   Explanation: It was an astronomical triple play. Setting on the left,
   just after sunset near the end of last month, was our Moon -- showing a
   bright crescent phase. Setting on the right was Venus, the brightest
   planet in the evening sky last month -- and this month, too. With a
   small telescope, you could tell that Venus' phase was half, meaning
   that only half of the planet, as visible from Earth, was exposed to
   direct sunlight and brightly lit. High above and much further in the
   distance was the Pleiades star cluster. Although the Moon and Venus
   move with respect to the background stars, the Pleiades do not --
   because they are background stars. In the beginning of this month,
   Venus appeared to move right in front of the Pleiades, a rare event
   that happens only once every eight years. The featured image captured
   this cosmic triangle with a series of exposures taken from the same
   camera over 70 minutes near Avonlea, Saskatchewan, Canada. The
   positions of the celestial objects was predicted. The only thing
   unpredicted was the existence of the foreground tree -- and the
   astrophotographer is still unsure what type of tree that is.

                       Tomorrow's picture: open space
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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