The stars of night and especially the Milky Way were unavailable this week. The Vineyard along with much of the country is under a high altitude cloud obscuring the faint objects of the night.
Even the moon in the last few nights looks like it is locked in sunset mode. The sky is so different. This is not the summer night sky we remember of weeks ago. Fog is a challenge but it comes and goes with changing weather patterns.
The Earth’s two closest neighboring planets, Mars and Venus, will look so close together in the nights ahead.
You can see them both low in the southwestern sky after sunset and only for a short time. The two are just above the horizon. Venus is the brighter of the two. Mars is faint enough against the light of twilight to be difficult to see. Binoculars will help.
In the nights ahead, the two will get closer and closer. By the middle of July, the two will be less than one degree apart.