Moon Meets Venus at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina
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On February 23 the Moon met Venus, Earth’s twin planet, for the second time this year. This celestial alignment is known as ‘lunar-planetary conjunction’ and happens when the Moon passes near a planet or a bright star.
On February 27 and February 28, astronomer Aymen Ibrahem of the Planetarium Science Center observed the Moon, Venus and Saturn, the ringed planet through the telescope from the Plaza of Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Mr. Ibrahem invited Library visitors to join the observation and enjoy watching the amazing lunar terrains such as countless craters, dark valleys, light-coloured high lands, and ragged mountains. Since the Moon is our nearest cosmic neighbour, all these varied surface features can be viewed with even a small telescope!
More interestingly, the Moon was not alone. There were two other dazzling Solar System members, planets Venus and Saturn. A planet most famous for its marvelous rings, Saturn can be easily viewed in an amateur’s telescope. Venus is the nearest and brightest planet and it shows phases similar to those of the Moon, i.e., sometimes Venus is seen as a crescent, quarter, and gibbous or full moon. The phases can also be tracked with a small telescope!
Lunar-planetary conjunctions are among the most beautiful heavenly sights. They resemble solar and lunar eclipses as they happen when the Moon passes near one planet or more, and in some cases the Moon may even eclipse the planet (pass in front of it). In this case the phenomenon is called an occultation.
The Moon is our closest cosmic neighbor, at a distance of only 400,000 km. Venus, the nearest planet to Earth, never approaches our planet to less than 40 million km. That is, at its shortest distance to Earth, Venus is 100 times farther than the Moon. Therefore, when the two celestial objects come in conjunction, there is no fear of collision. We see the two objects only (apparently) close in the sky due to their proximity to our line of sight but they are, in reality, a vast distance apart.