Venus and Mercruy: Close But No Conjunction!

Tonight after sunet, I kept shooting some photos. Venus is becoming an evening object again and Mercury is putting in an appearance as well.  It took some shooting, but I got both of them together in one shot (click to enbiggen).

Venus is near the top of the photo and Mercury is almost directly beneath it (offset a touch to the right). Mercury is very dim so look close.

These to planets are going to get much closer together and be about 2 degrees apart in early November and stay that close until about mid-November. Although they are very close together, they never have a true conjunction since they never have the same right ascension. It will still be a very scenic pairing that you can watch over the next couple of weeks.  Mercury will get easier to see as it rises higher in the sky. Right now, it is definitely a test of your eyesight!

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