In most cases, the Moon and Venus are the first and second brightest objects in the night sky. On the evening of May 5, the two will "meet" in the western sky, right in the middle of Gemini.
【During the same period】Xiu Lipeng, member of the Chinese Astronomical Society and expert in astronomy science
In May, the moon phase is the moth-eyed moon on the fifth day of the first lunar calendar, and when the moon is accompanied this time, the distance between Venus and the moon is about 5.1 degrees, less than 7 full moons The size of the apparent diameter is small, and the brightness of Venus is -4.4 magnitude. The sun has not completely set, and in fact the brightness of Venus is guaranteed to be visible. As long as the weather is good and you look west, you can see both of them. Venus will not set for two and a half hours or even three hours after dark, leaving us plenty of time for sight and shooting. The second interesting point is that Venus and the Moon are now (evening of the 3rd) exactly in the constellation Gemini, they are right in the "arms" of "Gemini", and directly above Gemini's two most famous bright stars, "North River Two" and "North River Three".
According to popular science experts, the moon runs very fast on the celestial sphere, and it will survey the sky about every 29 days. Whenever it passes by a planet and some bright stars near the ecliptic, it forms a celestial phenomenon of "bright stars with the moon". Among them, Venus with the moon has a high ornamental value.
【During the same period】Xiu Lipeng, member of the Chinese Astronomical Society and expert in astronomy science
Venus is an inner planet, because it is particularly bright, and the light color is silvery-white, so we called it a star in ancient China, also called it too white. We see it appear in the east at dawn, also called "Qiming", and appear in the west at dusk, call it "Chang Gung". Among all the bright stars with the moon, the viewing value of Venus with the moon is relatively high, not only because it (Venus) is particularly bright, but also because it always appears near the sun, which means that when the moon can accompany it here, the moon phase must be a moth moon or a residual moon. It's like a little hook, and Venus is a special match.
Since 2023, Venus has been appearing as "Chang Gung" and is the most watched star in the sky in the evening. In the coming month, there are still many Venus celestial phenomena to look forward to.
【During the same period】Xiu Lipeng, member of the Chinese Astronomical Society and expert in astronomy science
Venus has been very "restless" since this year (2023), and I think you will find that it is very close to many celestial objects. By next month, it will still be "busy", with a great eastern elongation on June 6, and then the famous ghost cluster, known as the open cluster M4, on the evening of June 6. Around June 13, Venus will accompany the moon again, this time there is Mars around the moon, and June 44 happens to be the Dragon Boat Festival, so you may wish to go out and take a look before eating zongzi.
Reporter Cheng Yu reported from Beijing
Responsible Editor: [Ji Xiang]