Astronomers of NSU captured the conjunction of the Moon and Venus

Astronomers of the Vega Observatory Faculty of Physics of NSU captured the conjunction of the Moon and Venus. The shooting took place around 6 p.m. on September 14 at the dam of the Novosibirsk hydroelectric power station.

The conjunction of the Moon and Venus in the bright sky is one of the vivid astronomical events of the autumn. On the evening of September 14, Venus was only 0.2° away from the edge of the lunar disk for observers in Novosibirsk. At the same time, this phenomenon was not visible in the dark, but since the Moon and Venus are very bright objects, this conjunction could be observed with binoculars or telescopes even before the Sun set, in the bright evening sky.

The best observation period was approximately from 18:30 to 19:10. A necessary condition is an open southwestern horizon and very clear skies, as even a slight cloudiness or haze in these conditions can significantly complicate or even make it impossible to observe this conjunction.

— The difficulty was that under daytime conditions, the Moon and Venus were not visible to the naked eye in the sky; they had to be found first with binoculars, and then a telescope or camera had to be aimed at them. Additionally, cloudiness was an obstacle, so it was necessary to catch moments when the Moon and Venus appeared in breaks in the clouds. Such close conjunctions, visible from a specific location, occur infrequently, only once every few years. This time, Venus was also in the form of a crescent, which is not that common, resulting in a combination of the large crescent Moon and the small crescent Venus. The shooting was conducted together with Roman Belousov on the dam of the Novosibirsk HPP, as an open southwestern horizon was needed. — commented Mikhail Maslov, engineer at the Vega Observatory of NSU.