A "triple" treat for all the sky gazers out there is coming up next week, as the planets of love and war are about to “meet” with the bonus of a super-slim crescent Moon. The celestial event, called a ‘planetary conjunction’, will be visible to the naked eye and it will be one of the sky-gazing highlights of the year.
The "triple Conjunction" will take place on July 12 and July 13 and surprisingly, Mars and Venus will appear to be just 0.5º from each other from Earth on July 13. Interestingly, this is also the first of three "planetary conjunctions" that will be happening in the coming months, as two similar mergers will take place on both February 12 and March 12, 2022.
This NASA photo obtained on March 23, 2021 shows an illustration of NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter standing on the Red Planet's surface as NASA's Perseverance rover (partially visible on the left) rolls away
© AFP 2023 / NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
On Thursday, the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) took to Twitter to share a post revealing details of this event. IIA also informed that the sky gazers can witness the event every evening from 8 July till July 13.
However, this mesmerising event will only be visible in the western sky or horizon after sunset on a clear sky. Moreover, people who will continue to watch even after the event will also be able to capture the departure of these planets. Meanwhile, the enthusiasts can also use ordinary binoculars to observe Venus and Mars at their closest points more clearly.