Students and sky-gazers watched the celestial event of lunar occultation of Venus, in Mangalore on Wednesday. They observed beautiful sight of a thin crescent moon coming directly between Earth and Venus, totally eclipsing Venus.
The moon moved towards the bright planet Venus. The event, which started at 11.05 a.m. in Udupi, ended at 12.22 p.m. This event is known as lunar occultation of Venus.
A.P. Bhat, Coordinator of Poornaprajna Amateur Astronomers Club, which arranged the viewing, said: “In Astronomy, occultation events occur when one celestial body hides another one behind it. This is a one of the rare events in day sky.”
More than 200 students and other people enjoyed watching this event with two powerful telescopes arranged by PAAC on the premises of Poornaprajna College, here.
The students and people saw this event through the telescopes and the naked eye. “Through the telescopes, the Venus looked like the crescent moon’s baby,” Prof. Bhat said.
Prof. Bhat and Ramdasa Prabhu, engineer at BSNL, guided the students and other persons during the programme.
