A crescent Moon will be visible close to Mars this weekend.-Mars and Moon Conjunction

 

Here’s everything you need to know about this weekend’s conjunction between the Moon and the red planet—including exactly when and where to look:

Look to the southwest after dark on Saturday, April 17, 2021 and those in the northern hemisphere will see our satellite close to Mars. It’s the only planet visible to the naked eye in the evenings this month.

Something special for Indians : 

If you observe the sky around 5pm on the 17th April evening,  Mars could be seen as a tiny dot shining very close to the moon. As time passes, in just a few minutes, the red planet suddenly disappears from nowhere in the sky. This is because the moon covers the planet Mars. This  phenomenon is only visible to Indians.

There are rare occasions when the moon passes in front of a star on this trajectory. Like a solar eclipse, the moon completely covers an object and disappears in the sky for 1.5 hours. The object disappears on one side and appears on the other.

If Moon passes too close to the planets it is called lunar conjunction with these planets.

As seen from earth ,Every month the Moon passes with Mars at very low angles, only a few degrees apart. As we see the pair from Earth, the distance between them varies from place to place. During the conjunction of Mars and the Moon, depending on where one observes it, the Moon appears to pass in front of Mars and causes an eclipse of Mars.

In the evening, due to the scattering in the sky, the dark side of the moon appears blue, and around 5 pm, Mars can be seen disappearing into the dark side behind the moon. At about 5.08 pm (Udupi and Dakshina Kannada) Mars disappeared from the sky, as the dark side of the moon was blue. At 6:55 pm, as the sun sets and darkens, the red planet reappears from the luminous side of the moon

                            - PVGaniga