You never know when the cosmos is going to drop in. I was driving home the other night and spotted Venus high above a street intersection in eastern Duluth. It was business as usual on Earth as the brightest of the planets cast a few rays in our direction.
Tonight and tomorrow night we'll be grateful for Venus' presence, because it gives us a last chance this season to easily find the planet Neptune in binoculars. The two will fit in the same field of view of a typical pair of 7 x 50 or 10 x 40 binoculars for the next two nights.
Go out about an hour and a half after sunset when the sky is dark and point your instrument directly at Venus. The planet is some 60,000 times brighter than Neptune, so don't stare at it too long otherwise you might lose the night vision you'll need to see the much fainter Neptune.
To read the rest of this post from Astro Bob, visit astrobob.areavoices.com.
