Celestial meet of Venus, Jupiter tomorrow

Visakhapatnam: A splendid celestial phenomenon `Venus in Conjunction with Jupiter’ will occur on August 18 giving people an opportunity to watch the two planets with naked eye. In other words both Jupiter and Venus will appear to be near each other as seen from Earth.

It is a known fact that Venus goes around Sun with its orbit located inside the orbit of Earth. Whereas Jupiter orbits Sun with its path located around far away from Earth. In other words, Orbits of Venus and Jupiter are located on either side of Earth, Director and founder secretary of Planetary Society-India N Sriraghunandan Kumar said here on Saturday.

Interestingly, due to phenomena of conjunction though they are separated by enormous distance and location of orbits, for observer on earth they appear near each other. What is more interesting is that this coming together of these two planets has been observed by people across the world since a week.

However, after August 18 people can observe these planets start moving away from each other over next few days. To Find Jupiter and Venus, one should look towards East about one-and-a-half hours before sunrise, i.e., around 5.30 a.m. One can find two non-twinkling star like objects: Venus (very bright) and a bit away from it would appear another bright object which is Jupiter.

While Venus and Jupiter are moving apart everyday people should have a watch on Moon which orbits Earth. Because using Moon and phenomena of conjunction people can find planet Jupiter and Venus even more easily.

On August 23, the celestial event of `Moon in Conjunction with Jupiter’ will occur i.e., Jupiter and Moon will appear near each other. Looking East one can find Jupiter below Crescent Moon. Similarly on August 24, “Moon in Conjunction with Venus” i.e., Venus could be found beside Moon, Sriraghunandan Kumar said.