United States,December 2: Millions of people watched the sky last night to see the “smiley face” made by the planets Jupiter and Venus and the moon. Those who missed the amazing arrangement of the heavenly bodies need not fret, because tonight sky watchers will once again have the opportunity to see the planets making this unique arrangement.
The celestial arrangement made by the two planets and the moon appeared like a smiling face of the night-heaven. The close alignment of planets Jupiter and Venus early last night appeared as two dots-like eyes and the crescent moon as smiling lips.
Interestingly, in the Southern Hemisphere, the heavenly bodies resembled a smiley face while it resembled a frowning face in the Northern Hemisphere.
Tonight, people will get another chance to look at this heavenly arrangement in the sky but as a slightly dimmer version of last night’s celestial show.
The three stars will be visible for only a few hours just like last night. If some people remain devoid of the heavenly view even today, they may get another chance, as the arrangement would be visible for a couple of days more before it totally disappears in the night sky.
Ancient astronomers have always seen the sky as a sphere of stars with the equator of the earth being projected into this sphere and called the “celestial equator.” The North and South poles are also projected into the sphere and called the “celestial poles.” Jupiter and Venus moved very close to one another and are on the north and south of each other on the imaginary celestial sphere.
To see this celestial show again, people will need to wait another 40 years. The next time that Jupiter, Venus and the moon will ever get this close to one another, will be in November 2052. However, Jupiter and Venus will again make a close alignment and fill the sky with their brightness in 2012.
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