Lunar occultation of Venus

Observers in Western Europe with a clear view to the south-southeast at nautical dawn can watch the changing configuration two prominent naked-eye planets over the next few mornings, culminating in a beautiful close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter on 22 January 2019.

Scientists have used ESA’s Venus Express to characterise the wind and upper cloud patterns on the night side of Venus for the first time-with surprising results.

Although the weather forecast is not too good, observers in Scotland and northern England could see asteroid (12655) 5041 T-3 occult a 5.7-magnitude star in western Cetus close to 7:48pm tonight.