Venus and Saturn in the pre-dawn hours 1-21-16

This is my last post of the night, and involves Saturn and Venus. Saturn is on its way up in the pre-dawn sky and Venus is on its way down. Saturn is at an apparent magnitude 0.53 and peaks on June 2nd at 0.00 apparent magnitude. The rings of Saturn are a crown jewel in our Solar System, and viewing them through a large or small telescope is really out of this world.

Venus, on the other hand has already reached its peak brightness on September 14th, at an apparent magnitude of -4.53 and currently is at a -4.00. Venus is actually taking shape and shining quite bright. The last time I did any imaging of Venus (other than the daytime Venus/Moon conjunction here) it was more of a crescent shape. Venus goes through phases similar to our Moon, because it lies in front of the earth and closer to the Sun. As it rotates around the Sun, different phases can be seen from here on Earth.

Saturn

Saturn

Venus

And in case you missed my previous posts today about Mars, and Jupiter here are the links