Hyderabad: Don’t miss the rare alignment of Venus, Saturn, and Moon in the skies

Triple conjunction of planets with moon entails planets Venus and Saturn in conjunction with Moon, which means the three celestial bodies will appear very close to each other in the Hyderabadi sky.

Hyderabad: Amateur stargazers from Hyderabad now have an opportunity to witness a rare celestial phenomenon known as triple conjunction of planets with moon, which will be visible in the Hyderabadi skies until Saturday.

Triple conjunction of planets with moon entails planets Venus and Saturn in conjunction with Moon, which means the three celestial bodies will appear very close to each other in the Hyderabadi sky.

---

“In simple terms, a conjunction occurs when two or more celestial bodies appear near each other in Earth’s sky despite the enormous distances separating them. For example, the Moon is 3, 84,000 km from Earth, while Venus and Saturn are millions to billions of kilometers away from Earth and the Moon. Yet, due to the conjunction, they appear near the Moon between Friday and Saturday. However, for the coming several weeks astronomy lovers in Hyderabad can also spot Venus and Saturn in the East direction before Sunrise,” says founder, Planetary Society of India (PSI), N Sri Raghunandan Kumar.

Interestingly, there was a rare celestial event in the conjunction of Venus with Saturn in the early hours of Friday. What’s interesting to note is that Venus orbits the Sun on one side of Earth, while Saturn’s orbit is much farther away, beyond Mars and Jupiter. Despite orbiting the Sun in different paths, sometime like on April 25 to 26 during ‘conjunction’ these celestial bodies appear near each other, Raghunandan pointed out.

No Smiley Face

There is unverified news about a ‘smiley face’ formation involving Venus, Saturn and the moon, which has gone viral in several social medial platforms. The senior astronomer from Hyderabad, however, has clarified that Saturn is too dim to be visible during this event, and city pollution further worsens the visibility.

While Venus is visible, Saturn remains invisible to bare eyes. As of now, Saturn is too dim because it is far from Earth. But as the days pass, the distance between Earth and Saturn will decrease, making Saturn brighter and more visible. Therefore, the news of a ‘smiley face’ involving the Moon, Venus, and Saturn is exaggerated and unverified, Sri Raghunandan Kumar said.

Members of the Planetary Society of India, who have been observing the Hyderabad sky for the past three days, have attempted to capture images and videos of Venus and Saturn. To access these pictures, visit www.ournewplanets.info for images/Videos.