#astronomy alert

[thesolaralmanac]

Planets at Dusk

Mercury and Jupiter can be found right after sunset in early November 2018. The crescent Moon will hang above Jupiter on Nov 8 and Mercury on Nov 9, making these planets easy to find.

The red star Antares (α Sco) lies below Mercury. Seen through a telescope, Mercury is approaching last quarter phase.

Click map to enlarge.

Map: Computed for viewers in the western USA. Up is up: Your southwest horizon is at foot of image. Tools: Binoculars necessary, telescope helpful. Best time to look: 15+ minutes after sunset. Do not wait until dark. Duration: November 8-9, 2018.

[venusward]

Astronomy alert || Joshua & Venus

A frown painted on her face, Venus walked down the halls of Clearbrook, balancing the pile of books in her arms as good as she could. She was not at all intrigued by the idea of having to write an assignment with someone else. The experience that she had with these things usually lead to her writing most of the essays by herself anyways... How else was she supposed to be sure that it had been done, right? But there was no way to get out of this situation, their teacher in astronomy had put them into groups of two, giving each of the groups a topic that they had to write about.

The redhead had been put with a guy named Joshua, she had seen him around the halls and in classes a few times, but had never really acknowledged him besides the times that he seemed to show more intelligence than anyone else around him, and now she was on her way to the Ascendor dorms to get this finished as soon as possible. She didn't have a hand free, so using her elbow to knock on the door she was sure was his, Venus stood there waiting for him to open up. This wouldn't be amusing at all.