On May 24, 8:31*am, Nick wrote:
On May 24, 8:30*am, Nick wrote:





On May 24, 1:31*am, Tudor Hughes wrote:

On May 23, 11:45*am, "Nick Gardner"

wrote:
Venus (currently magnitude -4.0) will continue to dominate the western
evening sky right through the early to mid summer period before being lost
in the twilight glare by late August.

One to look out for is on the 15th June when Venus and the Moon (which will
be a 3 day old crescent) will form a nice pairing in the early evening sky
with Mars and Saturn further east completing a arc of the ecliptic.
______________________
Nick
Otter Valley, Devon
83 m amsl
http:\\www.ottervalley.co.uk

* * * Venus is at greatest eastern elongation on 22 August (45°) which
should make it easiest to see but the altitude at sunset is becoming
very low due to the inclination of the ecliptic at sunset and the
inclination of Venus' orbit. *So it won't be lost in the glare of the
sun so much as lost in the horizon murk. *The sun itself will be well
to the west. *There will only be a short period when Venus is
visible. *By 9 October it sets at the same time as the sun though
still 28° to its east.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, *Surrey.

That leads on to a possible subtlety of spring vs autumn which I've
never actually noticed but I guess must be the case. In spring the
ecliptic has a very steep angle at sunset, while around the autumn
equinox it's a very shallow angle. I guess that must mean that around
the autumn equinox, the sun is much lower in the sky than around the
spring equinox.

Sorry I missed out a crucial point, I meant to say: "around the autumn
equinox, the sun is much lower in the sky about an hour before sunset
compared to the spring equinox"

Nick- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

That's not actually what happens because although it's true that
the ecliptic has a much shallower angle to the horizon at autumn
sunsets than at spring ones, the sun does not move relative to the
observer along the ecliptic but along a line parallel to the plane of
the equator, or actually on it. The plane of the equator makes the
same angle with the horizon whatever the time of year. (90° minus
latitude). This, of course may not be the time of sunset but the
principle applies.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.