{"id":618384,"date":"2026-10-02T11:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T11:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/618384\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T11:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T11:14:09","slug":"the-sky-today-on-friday-october-2-venus-stands-still","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/618384\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sky Today on\u00a0Friday, October 2: Venus stands still"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tBack to Article List\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tPlanet Venus comes to a halt against the background stars; catch it shortly after sunset along with Mercury, before the pair sets.\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"963\" height=\"622\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/10022026.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"Simulated view of a warm orange sunset sky over a dark horizon with distant buildings in silhouette, dated October 2, 2026, 20 minutes after sunset, looking west. Venus appears as a bright point low near the horizon, with the fainter point of Mercury labeled above and to the right.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tVenus and Mercury hang low in the western sky shortly after sunset on October 2, the same day Venus comes to a standstill against the background stars of Virgo. You\u2019ll need a clear western horizon to see the planets before they set. Credit: Stellarium\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/the-sky-this-week\/the-sky-this-week-from-september-25-to-october-2-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sky This Week<\/a>\u00a0column.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">October 1: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/observing\/the-sky-today-thursday-october-1-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Perseus\u2019 Double Cluster<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-paragraph\">The brilliant planet Venus stands stationary against the background stars of Virgo at 10 A.M. EDT.\u00a0 Together with Mercury, Venus is visible for a short time in the western sky after sunset, but you\u2019ll want a clear horizon to make sure you catch them.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just 20 minutes after sunset, Venus is only 2\u00b0 high; Mercury is about 4\u00b0 high, located to Venus\u2019 upper right. Venus is by far the brighter of the pair, blazing at magnitude \u20134.8 \u2014 its brilliance should help you find it, even close to the horizon. Mercury is several magnitudes fainter, but still quite bright at magnitude \u20130.1. You might need binoculars to help you pick it out of the slowly darkening sky, so once you find Venus, scan around for Mercury\u2019s position based on the chart above. Make sure not to begin using binoculars or a telescope until the Sun has fully set from\u00a0 your location. Venus sets about 30 minutes after the Sun, and Mercury is gone 15 minutes after that.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today\u2019s standstill brings Venus\u2019 prograde (eastward) motion to an end. After today, Venus will be in retrograde, appearing to move westward against the background stars. While tonight it sits in the southeastern corner of Virgo, near that constellation\u2019s border with Libra, Venus\u2019 retrograde motion will carry it away from Libra and\u00a0 back into Virgo after this date.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> Sunrise: 6:57 A.M.<br \/>Sunset: 6:40 P.M.<br \/>Moonrise: 10:50 P.M.<br \/>Moonset: 1:56 P.M.<br \/>Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (55%) <br \/>*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40\u00b0 N 90\u00b0 W. The Moon\u2019s illumination is given at 10 P.M. local time from the same location.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alison Klesman\u00a0is senior editor of\u00a0Astronomy\u00a0magazine. She holds a Ph.D. in astronomy and has studied a variety of topics, from minor planets to supermassive black holes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back to Article List Planet Venus comes to a halt against the background stars; catch it shortly after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,12839,147,62517,392],"class_list":["post-618384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-observing","tag-science","tag-sky-tonight","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}