The Conjunction of 23 April 1998

By Moh'd Odeh

On the morning of 23 April 1998 the sky witnessed a spectacular conjunction ! The waning crescent, Jupiter, and Venus were all together in the same field through a telescope. Unfortunately, it was cloudy at dawn. Later on, hours after Sunrise, the sky became better, and so observation was possible at about 10 am local time. For sure, the naked eye observation became no more helpful. Consequently, I used my binocular 10X50 at first, then I continued observing by 6-inch telescope. The Moon, Jupiter, and Venus were visible in both: the binocular and the telescope.

During observation, Jupiter was 20 arcminutes away from the Moon, i.e. just 3 arcminutes away from the Moon's limb ! Knowing that the graze path was about 240 Km due South. Venus was further at about 42 arcminutes away from the Moon.

In addition to observing this interesting event, I photographed it. Notice that this photo was taken during daytime at 10:36 am local time, using the 6-inch reflector telescope. Venus is the bright dot, and Jupiter is faint dot just near to the upper cusp.

Conjunction of the Moon, Jupiter, and Venus. 6-inch telescope, Fuji 1600 Super HG, 1/125 Sec. On 23 April 1998, at 10:36 am local time. By Moh'd Odeh.

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