[Bluearrowll]

What's in the sky tonight?
June 13, 2012

-Mercury is becoming more easily visible after sunset. Look for it low in the west-northwest in the fading twilight. It forms a long, vertical triangle with Pollux and Castor above it.

-Mercury (about magnitude –0.8) is very low in the west-northwest about 30 or 40 minutes after sundown. Don't confuse it with Capella well to its upper right, in the northwest.

Astro Picture of the Day:
June 13, 2012

Source:
Waiting years and traveling kilometers -- all to get a shot like this. And even with all of this planning, a good bit of luck was helpful. As the Sun rose over the Baltic Sea last Wednesday as seen from Fehmarn Island in northern Germany, photographer Jens Hackmann was ready for the very unusual black dot of Venus to appear superimposed. Less expected were the textures of clouds and haze that would tint different levels of the Sun various shades of red. And possibly the luckiest gift of all was a flicker of a rare green flash at the very top of the Sun. The above image is, of course, just one of many spectacular pictures taken last week of the last transit of the planet Venus across the face of the Sun for the next 105 years.