APOD: Mercury Meets Crescent Venus (2020 May 29)

Comments and questions about the APOD on the main view screen.
Post Reply
User avatar
APOD Robot
Otto Posterman
Posts: 5344
Joined: Fri Dec 04, 2009 3:27 am
Contact:

APOD: Mercury Meets Crescent Venus (2020 May 29)

Post by APOD Robot » Fri May 29, 2020 4:05 am

Image Mercury Meets Crescent Venus

Explanation: That's not a bright star and crescent Moon caught between branches of a eucalyptus tree. It's Venus in a crescent phase and Mercury. Near the western horizon after sunset, the two inner planets closely shared this telescopic field of view on May 22, seen from a balcony in Civitavecchia, Italy. Venus, the very bright celestial beacon, is wandering lower into the evening twilight. It grows larger in apparent size and shows a thinner crescent as it heads toward its inferior conjunction, positioned between Earth and Sun on June 3. Mercury, in a fuller phase, is climbing in the western sky though, reaching its maximum angular distance from the Sun on June 4 Still, this remarkably close pairing with brilliant Venus made Mercury, usually lost in bright twilight skies, easier to spot from planet Earth.

<< Previous APOD This Day in APOD Next APOD >>

User avatar
Ann
4725 Å
Posts: 13369
Joined: Sat May 29, 2010 5:33 am

Re: APOD: Mercury Meets Crescent Venus (2020 May 29)

Post by Ann » Fri May 29, 2020 4:44 am

Wow, the crescent of Venus! How often have we seen that in a widefield APOD?

And then Mercury is higher in the sky than Venus. That's funny and, I think, unusual too.

Great photo! :D

Ann
Color Commentator

User avatar
orin stepanek
Plutopian
Posts: 8200
Joined: Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:41 pm
Location: Nebraska

Re: APOD: Mercury Meets Crescent Venus (2020 May 29)

Post by orin stepanek » Fri May 29, 2020 10:47 am

Venere-e-Mercurio-tra-gli-Eucalipti1024.jpg
Kudos to Marco Meniero! Beautiful Photo! 8-)
Orin

Smile today; tomorrow's another day!

gwrede
Ensign
Posts: 18
Joined: Mon Dec 24, 2007 7:06 am

Re: APOD: Mercury Meets Crescent Venus (2020 May 29)

Post by gwrede » Fri May 29, 2020 1:33 pm

This is Venus in the picture. What explains the peculiar form?
Attachments
Screenshot from 2020-05-29 16-26-18.png
Screenshot from 2020-05-29 16-26-18.png (90.9 KiB) Viewed 4633 times
- Where's Latin?
- Alas, it's out of scope.

User avatar
Chris Peterson
Abominable Snowman
Posts: 18102
Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:13 pm
Location: Guffey, Colorado, USA
Contact:

Re: APOD: Mercury Meets Crescent Venus (2020 May 29)

Post by Chris Peterson » Fri May 29, 2020 2:01 pm

gwrede wrote: Fri May 29, 2020 1:33 pm This is Venus in the picture. What explains the peculiar form?
It is overexposed and is therefore bloating (due to diffraction and scatter in the optics) towards a big blob.
Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
https://www.cloudbait.com

Tszabeau

Re: APOD: Mercury Meets Crescent Venus (2020 May 29)

Post by Tszabeau » Fri May 29, 2020 2:17 pm

Does anyone know what the object, visible in the full sized view, at approx. 5:00 of Mercury is?

User avatar
johnnydeep
Commodore
Posts: 2777
Joined: Sun Feb 20, 2011 8:57 pm

Re: APOD: Mercury Meets Crescent Venus (2020 May 29)

Post by johnnydeep » Fri May 29, 2020 2:27 pm

Tszabeau wrote: Fri May 29, 2020 2:17 pm Does anyone know what the object, visible in the full sized view, at approx. 5:00 of Mercury is?
I'm not finding what you are referring to. All I see is haze and trees all around both Mercury and Venus. How close to Mercury is it?
--
"To B̬̻̋̚o̞̮̚̚l̘̲̀᷾d̫͓᷅ͩḷ̯᷁ͮȳ͙᷊͠ Go......Beyond The F͇̤i̙̖e̤̟l̡͓d͈̹s̙͚ We Know."{ʲₒʰₙNYᵈₑᵉₚ}

User avatar
Ann
4725 Å
Posts: 13369
Joined: Sat May 29, 2010 5:33 am

Re: APOD: Mercury Meets Crescent Venus (2020 May 29)

Post by Ann » Fri May 29, 2020 2:53 pm

gwrede wrote: Fri May 29, 2020 1:33 pm This is Venus in the picture. What explains the peculiar form?


I'm sure you're not asking about the phases of Venus, but in any case, I thought we might take a look at what the phases of Venus look like. 8-)

Ann
Last edited by Ann on Fri May 29, 2020 3:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Color Commentator

User avatar
Chris Peterson
Abominable Snowman
Posts: 18102
Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:13 pm
Location: Guffey, Colorado, USA
Contact:

Re: APOD: Mercury Meets Crescent Venus (2020 May 29)

Post by Chris Peterson » Fri May 29, 2020 2:55 pm

Ann wrote: Fri May 29, 2020 2:53 pm
gwrede wrote: Fri May 29, 2020 1:33 pm This is Venus in the picture. What explains the peculiar form?


I'm sure you're not asking about the phases of Venus, but in any case, I thought we might take a look at what the pahses of Venus look like. 8-)

Ann
Yes... but they never look quite like that!
Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
https://www.cloudbait.com

Tszabeau

Re: APOD: Mercury Meets Crescent Venus (2020 May 29)

Post by Tszabeau » Fri May 29, 2020 3:18 pm

johnnydeep wrote: Fri May 29, 2020 2:27 pm
Tszabeau wrote: Fri May 29, 2020 2:17 pm Does anyone know what the object, visible in the full sized view, at approx. 5:00 of Mercury is?
I'm not finding what you are referring to. All I see is haze and trees all around both Mercury and Venus. How close to Mercury is it?
It’s about an inch below and to the right of Mercury as it first becomes visible when I zoom in on the hi-res view. It would be approx. 75” from Mercury in the low-res view, if it were visible at that resolution.

User avatar
johnnydeep
Commodore
Posts: 2777
Joined: Sun Feb 20, 2011 8:57 pm

Re: APOD: Mercury Meets Crescent Venus (2020 May 29)

Post by johnnydeep » Fri May 29, 2020 4:34 pm

Tszabeau wrote: Fri May 29, 2020 3:18 pm
johnnydeep wrote: Fri May 29, 2020 2:27 pm
Tszabeau wrote: Fri May 29, 2020 2:17 pm Does anyone know what the object, visible in the full sized view, at approx. 5:00 of Mercury is?
I'm not finding what you are referring to. All I see is haze and trees all around both Mercury and Venus. How close to Mercury is it?
It’s about an inch below and to the right of Mercury as it first becomes visible when I zoom in on the hi-res view. It would be approx. 75” from Mercury in the low-res view, if it were visible at that resolution.
If you mean this white pixel that's slightly bigger than all the other whitish noise, I suspect it's just more noise:
mercury with something else.JPG
--
"To B̬̻̋̚o̞̮̚̚l̘̲̀᷾d̫͓᷅ͩḷ̯᷁ͮȳ͙᷊͠ Go......Beyond The F͇̤i̙̖e̤̟l̡͓d͈̹s̙͚ We Know."{ʲₒʰₙNYᵈₑᵉₚ}

User avatar
Joe Stieber
Science Officer
Posts: 215
Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2009 1:41 pm
Location: Maple Shade, NJ
Contact:

Re: APOD: Mercury Meets Crescent Venus (2020 May 29)

Post by Joe Stieber » Fri May 29, 2020 10:44 pm

I just noticed that today's (29-May-2020) APOD photographer, Marco Meniero, is also today's EPOD photographer!

https://epod.usra.edu/blog/2020/05/twil ... mical.html

User avatar
Chris Peterson
Abominable Snowman
Posts: 18102
Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:13 pm
Location: Guffey, Colorado, USA
Contact:

Re: APOD: Mercury Meets Crescent Venus (2020 May 29)

Post by Chris Peterson » Fri May 29, 2020 11:43 pm

johnnydeep wrote: Fri May 29, 2020 4:34 pm
Tszabeau wrote: Fri May 29, 2020 3:18 pm
johnnydeep wrote: Fri May 29, 2020 2:27 pm

I'm not finding what you are referring to. All I see is haze and trees all around both Mercury and Venus. How close to Mercury is it?
It’s about an inch below and to the right of Mercury as it first becomes visible when I zoom in on the hi-res view. It would be approx. 75” from Mercury in the low-res view, if it were visible at that resolution.
If you mean this white pixel that's slightly bigger than all the other whitish noise, I suspect it's just more noise.
I think you're probably correct, given that when the image was made there were several brighter stars around Mercury than the one that was near the location of this spot... and they aren't showing up.
Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
https://www.cloudbait.com

User avatar
neufer
Vacationer at Tralfamadore
Posts: 18805
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2008 1:57 pm
Location: Alexandria, Virginia

Re: APOD: Mercury Meets Crescent Venus (2020 May 29)

Post by neufer » Sat May 30, 2020 1:45 am


Chris Peterson wrote: Fri May 29, 2020 2:01 pm
gwrede wrote: Fri May 29, 2020 1:33 pm
This is Venus in the picture. What explains the peculiar form?
It is overexposed and is therefore bloating (due to diffraction and scatter in the optics) towards a big blob.
Art Neuendorffer

gwrede
Ensign
Posts: 18
Joined: Mon Dec 24, 2007 7:06 am

Re: APOD: Mercury Meets Crescent Venus (2020 May 29)

Post by gwrede » Sat Aug 01, 2020 5:31 pm

Ann wrote: Fri May 29, 2020 2:53 pm
gwrede wrote: Fri May 29, 2020 1:33 pm This is Venus in the picture. What explains the peculiar form?


I'm sure you're not asking about the phases of Venus, but in any case, I thought we might take a look at what the phases of Venus look like. 8-)

Ann
Precisely, Ann. None of the phases look like my enlargement!

What it looks like is more like if Venus were eclipsed by a smaller body, which obviously can't be the case. Another poster seems to believe this is due to over-exposure, but that is too far off, both because of the form and because of the sharp contours.

All I am left with, is that this is a photoshop "enhancement", perhaps by somebody who didn't guess somebody would take a careful loook. -- Maybe he could see it with his bare eyes but it didn't come out in the picture, so he drew it.

I'd be very pleased to find out this was not the case, because such "doctoring" is not in the spirit of APOD standards and professionalism.
- Where's Latin?
- Alas, it's out of scope.

User avatar
Chris Peterson
Abominable Snowman
Posts: 18102
Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:13 pm
Location: Guffey, Colorado, USA
Contact:

Re: APOD: Mercury Meets Crescent Venus (2020 May 29)

Post by Chris Peterson » Sat Aug 01, 2020 10:46 pm

gwrede wrote: Sat Aug 01, 2020 5:31 pm
Ann wrote: Fri May 29, 2020 2:53 pm
gwrede wrote: Fri May 29, 2020 1:33 pm This is Venus in the picture. What explains the peculiar form?


I'm sure you're not asking about the phases of Venus, but in any case, I thought we might take a look at what the phases of Venus look like. 8-)

Ann
Precisely, Ann. None of the phases look like my enlargement!

What it looks like is more like if Venus were eclipsed by a smaller body, which obviously can't be the case. Another poster seems to believe this is due to over-exposure, but that is too far off, both because of the form and because of the sharp contours.

All I am left with, is that this is a photoshop "enhancement", perhaps by somebody who didn't guess somebody would take a careful loook. -- Maybe he could see it with his bare eyes but it didn't come out in the picture, so he drew it.

I'd be very pleased to find out this was not the case, because such "doctoring" is not in the spirit of APOD standards and professionalism.
This is exactly what an overexposed, bloated Venus looks like. I've gotten similar images many times while adjusting the exposure.
Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
https://www.cloudbait.com

Post Reply