Clouds permitting, on May 23rd the sky is preparing to give one of the brightest encounters: the kiss between the Moon and Venus. To admire the conjunction between the two brightest stars of the night sky, just look west just after sunset. The phenomenon of ashen light, intuited by Leonardo da Vinci around 1510 and whose mechanism was explained about a century later by Galileo Galilei, will also be visible.
"To enjoy this spectacular encounter, our eyes are enough", observes astrophysicist Gianluca Masi, scientific director of the Virtual Telescope, who organized an indirect observation on the event at 23.00 on Tuesday 23 May. "The two protagonists - he continues - will shine in the west, direction where shortly before the Sun will have set, and will be clearly visible from dusk, until late at night".
The Moon "will also show the precious ashen light: in addition to the fraction illuminated directly by the Sun, the entire lunar disk will be visible, as in dim light". This phenomenon, which occurs a few days after the new Moon, is due to the fact that while the Moon appears as a very thin sickle illuminated directly by the Sun, the sunlight that hits the Earth is reflected towards the Moon, illuminating in a weaker way the remaining part of the lunar surface facing the Earth.
In the sky the brilliant kiss between the Moon and Venus LIVE AT 23.00
2023-05-23T16:09:32.987Z
Highlights: On May 23rd the sky is preparing to give one of the brightest encounters: the kiss between the Moon and Venus. To admire the conjunction between the two brightest stars of the night sky, just look west just after sunset. The phenomenon of ashen light will also be visible, intuited by Leonardo da Vinci around 1510 and explained about a century later by Galileo Galilei. The two protagonists will shine in the west, direction where shortly before the Sun will have set, and will be clearly visible from dusk, until late at night.
Clouds permitting, on May 23rd the sky is preparing to give one of the brightest encounters: the kiss between the Moon and Venus. To admire the conjunction between the two brightest stars of the night sky, just look west just after sunset. The phenomenon of ashen light will also be visible, intuited by Leonardo da Vinci around 1510 and whose mechanism was explained about a century later by Galileo Galilei (ANSA)