Spaceweather.com-5/25/13

When the sun goes down tonight, step outside and look west. Venus, Jupiter and Mercury are converging to form a bright triangle in the sunset sky. The best evening to look is May 26th, when the planets will fit within a circle less than 3^o wide. Petr Horálek photographed the convergence over the Czech republic on May 24th:

Link: Spaceweather.com

Earthsky.com - 5/10/13, Bruce McClure

The three brightest heavenly bodies of nighttime – the moon, Venus and Jupiter, respectively – can be found in the western sky after sunset now. Jupiter is easy to see because this king of planets stays out until about an hour after dark, but the moon and Venus are harder to catch because they follow the sun below the horizon before it gets truly dark outside. But – on May 10, 2013 – you’ll have a chance to catch the moon and Venus near each other, low in the western twilight sky. Whether you see them will depend on the clarity of your sky – and the lack of trees or tall buildings in the way!

Link: EarthSky.org

Accuweather.com- 3/27/13

Elements of a giant cyclone circling above the south pole of Venus constantly break apart and re-form, according to new research. Scientists studying observations of the planet taken over the last six years have concluded that the long-lived storm is constantly evolving, raising even more questions about the unusual weather formation.

A storm on the move

When the European Space Agency's Venus Express satellite arrived at the hot planet in April 2006, it observed a cyclonelike structure above Venus' south pole, four times as large as similar storms on Earth. Over the past six years, the spacecraft has collected daily observations about the storm, which resembles one spotted over Venus' north pole by NASA's Pioneer Venus spacecraft in 1979.