Venus and the Pleiades Star Cluster are in conjunction. (Source: NASA/JPL)Venus and the Pleiades Star Cluster are in conjunction. It's a view that stargazers can see only once every eight years.
SpaceWeather.com says "When the sun sets tonight, go outside and look west. Connecting the dots, the brightest stars of the Pleiades resemble a tiny dipper. Tonight Venus will brush the bottom of the dipper's bowl--a very close encounter indeed."
A conjunction is when two celestial bodies (in this case a planet and a cluster of starts) appear near each other in the sky, even though in reality they are light years apart.
SpaceWeather.com featured a photo of this conjunction by a local Tucsonan in today's online newsletter.
Here is a link to the camera settings for the photo.
If you catch this conjunction with your camera, e-mail the photo to pics@tucsonnewsnow.com.
