Monday 5th to Sunday 11th February 2024
How about a couple of observing challenges? If you are outside and look towards the south east at around 7am on Wednesday 7th, you will see a magnitude -3.9 planet Venus. Well that's not much of a challenge as a magnitude of that level is very bright.
At the same time, just to the right of Venus, a very thin 10%-lit Waning Crescent Moon will have just risen above the horizon. Now that is more of a challenge, but we're not finished yet..........
Around that time, the Chinese space station "Tiangong" will be visible. It appears over the west horizon at 7.05am. The space station doesn't climb very high in the sky and by 7.10am it will have passed just above Venus in the south east. At 7.12am it disappears below the horizon to the east south east.
Tiangong will have a brightest magnitude of around +1.4 as it passes above Venus so should be visible with the naked eye. It will look like a star that is silently moving. Please don't be tempted to use binoculars to follow its progress though, as it dips below the horizon in exactly the same spot as the Sun will be rising!
Tiangong is known as a 3rd Generation space station, meaning that it has modular construction, like the International Space Station and it was built in three stages between 2021 and 2022. It currently has a crew of three astronauts on board. The name translates to mean "Sky Palace" and its inhabitants conduct scientific experiments with the mission being controlled from Beijing.
www.starsoversomerset.com
Screenshots courtesy of Stellarium
Copyright Adrian Dening and Radio Ninesprings 2024
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