Tootfinder

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/

Radar-based observation of a lava tube on Venus: #Venus may have an underground tunnel carved by volcano eruptions: https://www.space.com/astronomy/venus/venus-may-have-an-underground-tunnel-carved-by-volcano-eruptions

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.

Four timesteps from the final 7 seconds before #Venus vanished behind a distant roof structure today: each image 1/3.2 second at f/2.8 and ISO 400 with maximum digital zoom yielding an equivalent focal length of abou 3 meters, pictures in full resolution and cropped, no further processing. The spectral #dispersion is clearly visible; unfortunately Venus 'hit' the structure from the side, so cutting off the red and leaving only the green/blue upper part as in #AtmosphericalOptics

Yay, in spite of #Mercury having dropped to 1.25 mag. and more clouds than yesterday here it is again, together with low #Venus, 1/2 hour ago this evening from #Bochum, Germany: two images 3 minutes apart, with solar depressions of 8°40' and 9°10', resp., Mercury at 5.3 and 4.8 and Venus at 1.3 and 0.9 degrees elevation, both 1/4 second at f/2.8 and ISO 800. Saturn was also detected again, much higher and way out of the frame.

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.

No, there is no magnificent 'planetary parade' in the evening right now as the internet shouts from everywhere but on the other hand there is also more to see than just Jupiter high in the sky - as I could confirm Wednesday from Bochum, Germany, at 51.5°N, #Venus is already a bright if rather low evening star while #Saturn and #Mercury could still be spotted above her: see https://www.facebook.com/dan.fischer.393/posts/pfbid027a6qUBbjXPf96BtzV89HNTcEA8Z2y9gorSCns8sTzS3nTFUpngTXwagopfUAw6Ngl for more pictures and hard numbers!

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!