This Friday, January 3, 2025, several of you out of X have relayed photos of a bright point located to the right of the Moon. What is it about? Elements of response.
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A small, very bright point aligned to the right of the Moon is what many of you observed this Friday, January 3 in the evening, in Normandy and almost everywhere in France.
Thanks to very clear skies, the phenomenon was easily visible yesterday evening. But what is it about?
-This is called a Moon-Venus conjunction. “A conjunction is when we observe two objects which from where we are standing are aligned” explains Simon Nicolas, director of the Ludiver planetarium in La Hague (Manche). “It’s always a cool astronomical event to observe as an amateur but scientifically, at present, it’s not of great importance because it happens quite frequently. Only certain particular conjunctions such as the alignment of the Moon and the Sun, called eclipse, are of interest to astronomers.“.
And Simon Nicolas adds with a smile: “it doesn’t announce anything either. No disaster, no need to play the lottery. It is common for us to be asked this question when something happens in the sky.“.
These phenomena are due to optical effects. Because remember that the solar system is made up of eight planets which orbit the Sun. Depending on where we are on Earth, when we look up at the sky, the paths of two planets can sometimes end up aligned with the Sun. This alignment will not necessarily be visible if we were at another location on Earth at the same time.
Reached by telephone, Erwan Collas, scientific mediator at the Villers-sur-Mer paleospace (14), confirms that these phenomena linked to the play of perspectives are common. “Moreover, another can be observed this Saturday, January 5 in the early evening. If you look towards the Moon just before 6:30 p.m., you will see a bright point which will disappear behind the Moon for an hour a few minutes later and then reappear. This bright point is Saturn which will be obscured for a time by the Moon. All you have to do is look up to the sky because like Venus, Saturn is a fairly bright planet in the solar system. It can therefore be seen with the naked eye.“
On January 18, a less frequent conjunction could also be observed that of Saturn and Venus…if and only if the weather conditions are right!
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