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Sunday, Jun 03, 2007
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A rare treat for stargazers

Eight planets making appearance on different days, times

HYDERABAD: Starting Saturday, people can watch a celestial wonder with as many as eight planets making an appearance in a single month on different days across the night sky.

A rare opportunity awaits stargazers for the next 10 days when five planets can be seen with the naked eye while three others can be seen using a telescope and other astronomical equipment.

Planetary Society India secretary Raghunandan Kumar said here on Saturday that a series of celestial events, including a parade of planets, awaits one in the night sky. On June 6, Jupiter will be in opposition to the Sun from viewpoint on Earth. At this point, Sun, Earth and Jupiter will be in a straight line. Jupiter, which will rise by 18.41 p.m., will be brightly visible in the eastern sky.

In February, Saturn was directly opposite the Sun.

Greatest elongation

On June 9, Venus will reach its greatest elongation at 45.3909 degrees east of Sun. One can spot Venus as a very bright star-like object in the western sky above the horizon after sunset. Mr. Raghunandan said that one could spot Neptune, Uranus and Mars on June 3 after 3 a.m. Neptune will be visible in the south-east direction, Uranus can be seen between east and south east direction and Mars above the east direction. — PTI

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