Stargazers are in for a dazzling nighttime display this week. Look up to the sky on Monday night to spot the bright planet Venus shining near Regulus, the most vivid star in the constellation Leo. Then on Sunday, Venus will appear close to the glowing sliver of a young crescent moon.
The celestial bodies will be in conjunction at 4:00 p.m. ET, but they'll hang out close together on Monday night and for a few more evenings, EarthSky reported. As the week goes by, the gleaming dots will slowly move further apart, the publication stated.
Look westward to catch the glowing orbs. If you have binoculars, you should be able to watch Regulus appear near Venus just after sunset. If you're watching the skies with just the naked eye, you'll be able to see the star as night falls.
Although Regulus is the 21st brightest star in the sky—which is pretty bright, when you consider how many stars you can spot gazing down on Earth every night—it's nowhere near as luminous as Venus, which is the brightest planet in the sky. Venus will appear about 158 times brighter than Regulus at 9:45 p.m. local time, Space.com pointed out.
On Sunday, Venus will rendezvous with a skinny crescent moon emerging from Thursday's new moon phase. The planet will sit nearby our rocky companion which, Space.com reported, will be illuminated by a phenomenon known as Earthshine, where sunlight reflected by our planet lights up the darker portion of the moon. This area should glow a faint gray, rather than the usual pitch black.
Look to the sky before the moon sets to catch the two brightest celestial bodies glowing together in the night sky. In New York, our faithful satellite will set at 22:34 p.m. ET Sunday. Over in Los Angeles, the rocky orb will set at 22:27 p.m. local time. You can check moonrise and moonset times in your city at timeanddate.com.
Keep moongazing this month and—if you live pretty much anywhere other than the mainland U.S.—you'll catch our moon blushing during a lunar eclipse. Americans will have to wait until January 2019 to see another blood moon.
Astronomers have looked to Venus for thousands of years. Its path across the sky means it sometimes appears at night and sometimes in the early morning hours.
Because of this, it's sometimes called the "morning star" or the "evening star." The Latin word "Lucifer" personified Venus at dawn in classical mythology, and the Ancient Greeks called it Phosphorus (morning star) and Hesperus (evening star). This year, Venus will pass between the Earth and the sun in late October, after which it will shine in the morning.
Uncommon Knowledge
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