On January 9th, the first day of "Sanjiu", the first Venus with the moon in 2024 will be "staged" on this day, when as long as the weather is fine, the interested public in the mainland will face the southeast sky in the early morning of the same day, and with the naked eye, they can enjoy the romantic picture of the stars and the moon at close range, and the starlight and moonlight are intertwined, like a dream, like a fairy tale.
Zhou Bo, a Beijing starry sky photography enthusiast, photographed Venus with the moon in Huairou, Beijing, on May 27, 2022. (Photo courtesy of me)
Normally, the Moon and Venus are the first and second brightest objects in the night sky. The conjunction of Venus, known as the most beautiful "fairy tale of stars and moons", refers to the closest angular distance between Venus and the moon when they just orbit to the same right ascension, which is one of the celestial phenomena of planetary conjunction and moon.
A bright Venus photographed by Beijing star photography enthusiast Pu Shi at the Ming Tombs in Beijing on April 10, 2023. (Photo courtesy of me)
Xiu Lipeng, a member of the Chinese Astronomical Society and an expert in astronomical science popularization, said that the moon passes near Venus every month, but the distance between the two is different each time. The time when the two right ascensions are the same is the conjunction of the moon, for example, the specific time of this conjunction is 4 o'clock on the 9th. Around this time, Venus and the Moon will also be very close, a condition often referred to as Venus with the Moon.
This is Venus with the Moon taken in Beijing on May 27, 2022. (Photo courtesy of Tsinghua University Astronomical Association)
The attentive public will notice that the Venus Companion Moon occurs either in the early hours of the morning or in the evening and does not last very long, about 3 hours, why is that?
Xiu Lipeng explained that Venus's orbit is within the Earth's orbit, and it is an intraterrestrial planet that is closer to the Sun than the Earth. From Earth, Venus always "runs around" within no more than 48 degrees on the east and west sides of the Sun. For every 15 degrees between the planet and the Sun, there is a difference of 1 hour between the rise and set, so Venus rises at most 3 hours earlier than the Sun and sets 3 hours later, so it can only be seen before dawn or at dusk.
Chen Yuehua, a Shanghai starry sky photography enthusiast, photographed Venus with the moon in Pudong, Shanghai, May 23, 2023. (Photo courtesy of me)
Since Venus always hovers near the Sun, when the Moon is accompanied by it, the moon phase is either the narrow crescent moon at the beginning of the lunar month, or the waning moon at the end of the lunar month, which is thin.
Liu Qing, a starry sky photography enthusiast in Tianjin, photographed Venus with the moon in downtown Tianjin on March 24, 2023. (Photo courtesy of me)
Xiu Lipeng said that when the Venus conjunction occurred, the two were still below the horizon. It doesn't rise above the horizon until around 5 a.m. At that time, the phase of the moon was a thin waning moon, and Venus was not far from the upper left corner of the waning moon. The waning moon in winter, with a patch of silver frost, is lonely and graceful, very beautiful, and Venus, although not at its brightest, is still very striking and cannot be ignored. Accompanied by stars and moons, it has become the most beautiful scenery in the southeast sky.
Source: Xinhua News Agency
Edited by Xu Weiwei
Second instance Li Jie
Third trial Zhou Wenjun