This celestial event is John Caldwellsure to make you smile. In the wee hours of this Thursday morning, the night sky will light up with a unique illusion courtesy of an alignment between Venus and the moon.
A "smile" will appear over the Eastern sky early tomorrow morning as the moon gets up close and personal with Venus, creating the vision of a glowing grin.
This spectacle is made possible by the current status of the moon, which is in its waning crescent phase, the final phase of the moon's monthly cycle before it begins again as a New Moon. When the moon is waning, it means the surface area we are able to see illuminated by the sun is getting smaller; when we are only able to see about 15% of the moon's surface, it appears to us on earth as a slender crescent shape.
This shape is created because we are only able to view the edge of the moon as it's lit by the sun, and the roundness of the lunar body makes this viewable sliver look curved.
While the moon moving through this final phase happens every month, it will be positioned within one degree of Venus, forming a "conjunction," or an event in which two astronomical objects appear close together. The orientation will create the illusion of a smiley face, and the luster of Venus, the third brightest object in the sky after the sun and moon, will make all of this easy to see by the naked eye.
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People who want to catch a glimpse of the glowing sky will have to prepare to get up extra early. The phenomenon will be visible in the eastern and south-eastern North American sky staring around 3 a.m. ET and last for about two hours as sunrise approaches.
Because the celestial bodies will be so bright, it will be easy to view the lunar event with nothing but your own two eyes, granted the weather cooperates. However, if you want to get an even more detailed glimpse of the moon's surface, a simple pair of binoculars will suffice if you don't have easy access to a telescope.
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