金星与昴宿星团

2020 April 4

Venus and the Sisters
Image Credit & Copyright: Fred Espenak (Bifrost Astronomical Observatory)

Explanation: After wandering about as far from the Sun on the sky as Venus can get, the brilliant evening star is crossing paths with the sister stars of the Pleiades cluster. Look west after sunset and you can share the ongoing conjunction with skygazers around the world. Taken on April 2, this celestial group photo captures the view from Portal, Arizona, USA. Even bright naked-eye Pleiades stars prove to be much fainter than Venus though. Apparent in deeper telescopic images, the cluster’s dusty surroundings and familiar bluish reflection nebulae aren’t quite visible, while brighter Venus itself is almost overwhelming in the single exposure. And while Venus and the Sisters do look a little star-crossed, their spiky appearance is the diffraction pattern caused by multiple leaves in the aperture of the telephoto lens. The last similar conjunction of Venus and Pleiades occurred nearly 8 years ago.

Tomorrow’s picture: color the universe

金星与昴宿星团
影像提供与版权：Fred Espenak (Bifrost Astronomical Observatory)

说明：在地球天空中，金星运行到距太阳最大张角的位置之后，这颗明亮的黄昏星，紧接着通过昴宿星团的成员星之前方。而位在世界各地的观星人，只要在日落后往西方天空看，都能见到这个正在进行的近合景观。这幅记录这群天体的团体照，即是在4月2日摄于美国．亚利桑那州的波特尔。在影像里，很明显的肉眼即可见的昴宿星团之成员星，亮度远逊于金星。此外，在较长曝光望远镜影像里，这个星团周围本来非常鲜明的泛蓝反射星云，反而隐而不显，而较明亮的金星几乎淹没了这片景观。金星和昴宿星团成员星所带的星芒，则是源自望远镜头的多重光圈叶所造成的绕射图案。上次类似的金星和昴宿星团近合景观，出现8年前几乎相同的期间。

明日一图预告：color the universe