June 30 Planets Jupiter and Venue is rare conjunction

Hope for clear skies!

The convergence of Jupiter and Venus culminates on Tuesday, June 30, 2015 with a CLOSE CONJUNCTION of these planets! At their closest approach, these two planets will be SO CLOSE, only 1/3 of a degree, or 20 arcminutes apart! This is close enough to fit inside the same field of view of binoculars, or a telescope at low power! (A typical small scope at 30x can show the entire Moon, which is 30 arcminutes across, larger than the separate between the planets on this night.)

Through the eyepiece, you can see a crescent Venus, along with Jupiter and Galileo's moons (Ganymede to the east, and Europa, Io, and Callisto to the west, as seen at the time of evening twilight, eastern USA time zone). Keep in mind that a telescope will present an inverted image, so this view will appear upside down through a scope.

Contact your local planetarium, observatory or astronomy club to find out if they are offering a telescope program on that night. If they are not, request that they do so! This is a very rare event that no one will want to miss!

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