May 29, 2020
A birthday is what happens when cosmic time briefly puts down the scale of eons and pays attention to a single human year.
Mercury Meets Crescent Venus
Birthday · May 29, 2020
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APOD published May 29, 2020. Credit: Marco Meniero. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
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. Gallery: Notable Venus & Mercury Conjunction 2020 Images submitted to APOD
Image credit: Marco Meniero