Charuta Bapat
New Delhi: June 30, Thursday, will bring about some interesting celestial movements.
The moon will come in between the Earth and Venus. And for a while the planet will be right behind the moon. The celestial activity will be visible during the day.
This will be first visible from Kandla at Gujarat at 1.03 pm, and the last place in India from where it will be visible is Silchar in Assam at 1.57 pm.
Twenty minutes after that Venus will come out from behind the Moon.
Mr. Arvind Paranjapye, the Scientific officer of Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA)- Pune, said, “On June 30 the moon will rise about 1 hr and 30 min before the local sun rise. Venus will follow the moon after about 10 minutes. We all will have to check for the sunrise time on the previous day.”
Asked how to locate the planet, he replied, “Venus will be about two and half degrees below the crescent moon. As the day breaks it would be difficult to spot Venus, but with the reference of crescent, Venus can be seen without much difficulty. As the day progresses, the separation between Venus and the Moon will start reducing. Until a time will come when Venus will be too close to the lunar limb and then it would be gone gradually.”
But one cannot see this rare event with naked eyes. The IUCCA recommends a pair of 7x 50 binoculars, but warns that extreme caution must be exercised since the sun will be just about 12 degrees east the moon. The IUCAA will webcast the event live.
According to Paranjapye, a similar event took place 23rd April, 1998 around 1.30 pm IST, when the moon covered not just Venus, but Jupiter as well. This event was widely observed across the country, and many people had been able to see Venus in broad daylight, while some spotted Jupiter as well.
This time, people in Mumbai can see Venus disappear behind the moon at 1.17 pm, and reappear at 2.53 pm. In New Delhi, it will appear at 1.18 pm and reappear at 2.41 pm.
First Published: Tuesday, June 28, 2011, 23:46