The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Spectacular celestial event tomorrow

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 09, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Spectacular celestial event tomorrow

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, NOV.8. The Association of Amateur Astronomers has said that a spectacular celestial event is to occur on November 10 when the planet Venus (`Shukra') gets occulted for more than an hour in the early morning sky.

Those interested can wake up at 4 a.m. to watch the crescent moon rising in the east and minutes later the rise of the Venus planet. After a while, the moon will slowly drift towards the plant and at about 4.47 a.m. Venus starts being enveloped into the brighter portion of the moon. Within seconds Venus will be completely invisible and the event continues till 5.45 a.m. when it emerges out of the dark side of the moon.

Visible with naked eye

As the moon and Venus are the brightest objects in the sky, the celestial event can be watched with a naked eye provided, of course, if the sky is clear at that time. The crescent moon and bright Venus will appear like a celestial wick flickering in the sky. If peered more closely, the plant Jupiter (`Bruhaspati') can also be observed above the moon, according to Y. Ravi Kiron, Coordinator of the association.

Such an event had earlier occurred on May 21 this year but on that day, Venus began to disappear before the sunset and it was visible only when it started remerging from the moon's disk. Occultation takes place when a larger object completely covers a small object in the sky. Due to the earth's rotation, all the objects move from east to west but as the moon revolves round the earth, it has a tiny eastward motion in the sky, he added.

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