Hyderabad: Celestial drama continues to delight City stargazers

Hyderabad: The month of March had a dazzling beginning in the night sky as the two brightest planets in the solar system Jupiter and Venus appeared as if they were right next to each other.

These two planets which have been shining throughout February inched closer to each other. On Sunday March 5 98%-lit gibbous moon appeared close to Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation of Leo. Leo "the Lion" is centred around the bright star Regulus, which marks the animal's heart, though its tail star Denebola is easily visible in the sky according to astronomers.

Though these two stars are now parting their way, but the celestial drama will continue till the end of March and will continue to mesmerise sky gazers.

According to scientists of the Planetary Society, these conjunctions do not have any profound astronomical significance. In our Solar System, conjunctions frequently occur between planets as they orbit around the Sun in approximately the same plane – the ecliptic plane – and thus trace similar paths across our sky. This occurs after every 13 months.

Explaining about the scientific reason for it, Raghunandan Kumar, Director, of the Planetary Society of India, said "Conjunction is a term used in positional astronomy. It means that, as seen from some place (usually the Earth), two celestial bodies appear near one another in the sky. However, Planets are located at a greater distance from earth and they themselves are separated by enormous distances. But due to astronomical phenomena of conjunction they appear near to each other in our skies.

After being visible as a morning object for the most part of 2022. Planet Venus returned to the evening sky in the last weeks of December 2022. Ever since then, it is visible as the first bright object after Sunset in the evening sky in the west direction."

Whereas Planet Jupiter after the celestial event of Jupiter Opposition in September 2022 is visible in the evening skies immediately after Sunset. For the last two weeks, people in the city and across the world have been seeing two bright non-twinkling star-like objects in the west direction after Sunset.

Many shared the images of these planets on social media, He said they had asked the general public to take selfies with Planets Venus & Jupiter and send them to 7993482012.

Venus which is the second planet and Jupiter which is the fifth Planet from Sun then how can they appear Close to Earth's Sky? Raghunandan, said the reason is combination of orbital positions of planets Jupiter and Venus and the location of Earth in its orbit around the Sun.

The geometrical position of Planets Jupiter, Venus and Earth around the Sun are such that they appear to be near to each other. He said though Jupiter will become a morning object after March, Venus will continue to be visible in the evening sky on the west side till August 2023.

Astrologers feel that this combination will augur well for the country till May. Astrologer K Rambabu said after May there could be some problems regarding the country's finances. Will it lead to some kind of recession? One needs to wait and watch.