Tootfinder

The planets #Jupiter (left) and #Venus and the #Gemini stars Pollux and Castor above them this evening - with the Sun 10° below and 10° above the horizon - from Bochum, Germany: exactly two weeks before the planets are closest to each other. (In https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_w5MOP0yxo a one-hour documentary about this conjunction, from Austria.)

A Planetary-Scale Hydraulic Jump Driving #Venus' Cloud Front: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2026JE009672 -> Venus’ atmosphere jumps and waves: https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/en/press/z0508_00453.html - vast atmospheric waves on Venus are caused by largest known “hydraulic jump” -> A Gigantic Atmospheric Anomaly Keeps Showing Up on Venus. Astronomers Finally Know Why: https://gizmodo.com/a-gigantic-atmospheric-anomaly-keeps-showing-up-on-venus-astronomers-finally-know-why-2000757051 - the answer is a gigantic “hydraulic jump,” and researchers believe similar phenomena may occur on planets like Mars.

Carbon Cycle Imbalances on Arid Terrestrial Planets with Implications for #Venus: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ae4faa -> Planets need more water to support life than scientists previously thought: https://www.washington.edu/news/2026/04/15/planets-need-more-water-to-support-life/

The planets #Venus and #Saturn in #conjunction 1/2 hour ago over Bochum, Germany - easily caught with a hand-held bridge camera at 1/4 and 1/3.2 second, f/2.8 and ISO 800 but marginal even in 11x70 binoculars: bad sky transparency, caused mostly by Sahara dust AFAIK took its toll. At these images with the best *photographic* contrast the Sun was 8 1/2° below the horizon while Saturn and Venus were 3 1/4° and 3 3/4° high, with the latter 83 times brighter.

While the camera still had no problem getting #Venus and #Saturn clearly this evening with the Sun 10° below the #Bochum horizon, the latter was not evident to the naked eye anymore (as it had been yesterday) at any solar depression - game over? Also the full moon rising, sadly long uneclipsed again. More pictures from this evening in https://www.facebook.com/dan.fischer.393/posts/pfbid037uKnrWeiChGm7m379BB3CyG5xj9byMqCziA4p1WNWrcdvkHbuuqfe3ea7ps5QDAYl

Moon rising and #Venus und #Saturn setting from #Bochum, Germany, today: the 2nd image coincided with 1.0-mag.-Saturn just having become visible to the naked eye, at an elevation of 6 3/4° with a solar depression of 9 3/4°. More pictures in the album https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=dan.fischer.393&set=a.10233358390356655 from image 45.

Manchmal hab' ich das Gefühl, dass alles zu viel wird und ich zu wenig tun kann. Dann hilft oft der Blick nach oben, weg von der Welt, rein in die schier unendliche Ferne.
#Sonnenuntergang
#Mond
#Jupiter
#Venus
#Darmstadt

The #Moon with #earthshine and #Venus in two stages of #dusk over #Bochum, Germany, this evening: in https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=dan.fischer.393&set=a.10233702649202911 and https://skyweek.wordpress.com/2026/03/20/der-artemis-ii-stack-steht-erneut-auf-der-rampe/ more pictures!