Moon To Eclipse Venus On June 18

Taken from a Bernama report today.

The planet Venus will be eclipsed by a thin crescent moon on June 18, Nehru Planetarium director Piyush Pandey has said.

Countries in West Asia and Europe will have a better view of the event, called Occultation of Venus by the moon, while most places in India will see only the disappearance phase of the event when Venus will suddenly vanish behind the bright limb of the moon, he said.

Following the new moon on June 15, the moon will be just a thin crescent on June 18 and will eclipse Jupiter in the evening hours on that day, Press Trust of India (PTI) cited a release quoting Pandey as saying here Wednesday.

Venus is the most brilliant object in the sky after sunset these days and lies in front of stars of the Cancer constellation that does not have any prominently bright stars but contains an open cluster of stars known as the beehive star cluster.

By the time reappearance takes place on the dark limb, the Moon and Venus will have set below the horizon. In Mumbai, the disappearance phase will begin at 9.37 p.m. (local time).

But it will be difficult to view the phenomenon as rain clouds may play spoilsport, he said.

***** Will we be able to see anything at all from Malaysia? Has there been any news from our astronomy people? To those reading this post, if there is any interesting info on the above, please let us know.