By Dan Hicks

Venus and the waxing crescent moon (left facing) set together into our west-southwest horizon (see chart below).

Blazingly brightly at magnitude -4.7, Evening Star Venus will appear telescopically as a moonlike left-facing half-illuminated orb, 39 days before crossing between Planet Earth and the sun at its October 23 (MDT) inferior conjunction to later become the Morning Star in our eastern sky by mid-November.

However, despite its luminescence, at 20:00 Alberta Time (MDT), setting Venus will be merely 4.9 degrees above a favorable west-southwest horizon – only two minutes after astronomical sunset (19:58 – altitude -0.8 degrees – west), so our observational window will be brief; and all would-be observers, especially those utilizing binoculars, must be familiar with their western horizons – acutely aware as to whether or not the sun has actually set.

The safest procedure would be to avoid looking toward this sunset sky celestial duo until 20:00 precisely; and note – they will be setting to the right of where the sun itself has set.

Given today’s forecasts for cloudy weather, this Venus-moon rendezvous will require more than a favorable western horizonal perspective, we will need a fortuitously timely opening in the clouds.

Sources: Heavens-above.com, Skyandtelescope.org, & Timeanddate.com.

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