Thanks for posting this. I was up early and saw the Venus/Regulus pair as well, but wasn't sure which star because it seemed so dim. Thanks for the explanation. Dion ________________________________ From: Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Wednesday, October 3, 2012 6:40 AM Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Venus; the Sun Venus was extremely close to Regulus this morning. If I'm not mistaken, today was closest approach. I've been watching Venus sneak-up on the star for several days now. We consider Regulus to be a pretty bright star, but right next to Venus makes it a study in contrast. It's almost lost in the planet's glare. I believe Venus is nearly 1000X brighter than Regulus, according to S&T. Another treat was a bright meteor with a very long train that terminated only a few degrees from the pair while I was looking up at about 6 AM this morning. Yesterday afternoon I found the sun very active. Many small prominences almost all along the limb. Not large, but some interesting shapes. Also one huge sunspot and several smaler ones. Definitely worth another look after work this afternoon. _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Send messages to the list to Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club. To unsubscribe go to: http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options".