[NAEP] Fwd: Venus and the Pleiades

[Dawn Wiseman]

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>Space Weather news for April 8, 2007
>http://spaceweather.com
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>VENUS & THE PLEIADES: Venus and the Pleiades are converging for a 
>close encounter on Wednesday, April 11th.  At closest approach, the 
>planet and the star cluster will be about 2 degrees apart, tight 
>enough to fit behind your upturned thumb held at arm's length. 
>They're an odd couple.  Venus is extravagantly bright while the 
>Pleiades are faint and delicate, yet together they make a pretty 
>ensemble suitable for photography, binoculars or simple naked-eye 
>viewing. Watch the western sky after sunset in the nights ahead to 
>see them drawing together.
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>BAFFLING BANDS:  Also featured on today's edition of 
>spaceweather.com are photos of dark bands in Venus' atmosphere. 
>These features were first observed in detail by the Mariner 10 
>spacecraft in the 1970s and they have baffled astronomers ever 
>since.  Amateur astronomers with properly-filtered backyard 
>telescopes can monitor the mysterious bands for themselves, and 
>indeed this is a good week to do it. 
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>Visit http://spaceweather.com for more information, photos and sky maps.
>