Know Thyself - Welcome @ Kristo's blog

Know Thyself - Welcome @ Kristo's blog
David - I adore the community of saints / Gelukpa's

woensdag 1 juli 2015

Venus and Jupiter become Star of Bethlehem

Venus and Jupiter will be visible near each other in skies around the world tomorrow and Wednesday in a rare conjunction event.
The planets, which are hundreds of millions of miles from each other, will for a short period of time seem to be galactic neighbours, passing so close they seem to merge.
It will be the closest conjunction of the two planets until August 2016.

People in the UK and US can spot Venus and Jupiter together tomorrow (artist's impression shown). From the UK they will be visible above the western horizon after 10.30pm. In the US they will be visible in the same direction after sunset. This chance alignment of the two planets is very rare

STAR OF BETHLEHEM 

Sky & Telescope Contributing Editor Fred Schaafsaid the current string of Venus-Jupiter conjunctions closely resembles a similar series between the years 3 and 2 B.C. 
'As has been the case in 2014–15, the first two conjunctions back then were extremely close, the last one separated by about 1°, all three occurred not far from Regulus, and all were similarly high up in the sky.'
The two planets are the brightest in the night sky as seen from Earth.
The line-of-sight illusion is caused when the orbits of Venus and Jupiter line up on the same side of the sun as seen from Earth.
As Venus orbits in 225 days, Earth in 365 and Jupiter in 4,330, the chance of such as alignment occurring is fairly rare.
The next in August 2016 will be visible only from certain latitudes, while they will not be seen in UK skies like this again until November 2019.
In the UK, the best time to look will be between 10.30 to 11pm towards the west-northwest horizon.
The further north and west in the UK you are, the later you should look.
In the US, the best time will be just after sunset, above the western horizon.


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