Article Posted on : - Sep 11, 2010

Venus and crescent Moon teaming up together on Saturday

NEW DELHI (PTI): A double celestial show awaits star gazers in the night sky on Saturday with Venus and crescent Moon teaming up together and asteroid Flora coming directly opposite to Sun and Earth.

The planet Venus and the crescent Moon will come together in the south-western sky for a conjunction, which will be visible for hours after sunset, Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) President C B Devgun told PTI.

As the sun goes down in the evening, one can look south-west to see the celestial phenomenon during which the Moon will form the spectacular conjunction with Venus, popularly known as goddess of love.

The two brightest objects in the night sky, Venus and Moon, will be around 1/2 degrees apart.

Conjunction is a term used in astronomy for the relative positions of celestial bodies. In the Moon-Venus conjunction, two celestial bodies will appear near each other in the sky.

The celestial event will be visible from all parts of the world, even from light-polluted cities. Only cloudy weather can spoil the show.

Also, there will be another celestial event for the space lovers on Saturday as Sun, Earth and asteroid Flora will form an opposition. However, this will not be visible to the naked eye.

Flora is a large, bright main-belt asteroid of 125 km size. It is the innermost large asteroid and seventh brightest asteroid in the mail belt asteroid family.

It was discovered by Astronomer J Hind in London on October 18, 1847.