Crescent Moon to put on a dazzling celestial light show with Venus tonight
The moon and Venus have been putting on quite a show this year – and tonight stargazers will be treated to another spectacular display.
A crescent moon will appear just six to seven degrees apart from Venus, which is roughly two-thirds of a fist held at arms’ length, with the planet above and to the right of Earth’s cosmic sidekick.
However, while they might look close together, in reality Venus will be 45million miles away, with the Moon looming over Earth at the furthest point in its orbit – a distance of 250,000 miles.
Light fantastic: The crescent moon and Venus will put on a dazzling show tonight
Venus is relatively close to both the sun and Earth, and reflects a lot of light due to the runaway greenhouse gases that gave the planet a smog-filled, hot atmosphere of carbon dioxide which reflects much of the sun's light.
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In June, Venus will appear to cross in front of the sun from some positions on Earth - an event that only takes place four times every 200 years. The next one will take place in 2117.
In July, early-risers will be treated to a similar spectacle of Jupiter and Venus - this time in the eastern sky - at daybreak.
Heavenly body: Venus is currently around 45 million miles away but is so bright it can be seen with the naked eye
The Moon is currently in a ‘waxing’ phase, which means the proportion of the surface that’s visible is becoming larger.
It goes through a full cycle of phases every 29.5 days, moving from a new Moon, when we can’t see it at all, to a full Moon two weeks later.
Inbetween these states in waxes and wanes, or grows more visible and then shrinks.
During a full Moon, the Moon is positioned behind the Earth, and during a new Moon it is sitting directly between the Earth and the Sun.
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