Image provided by Qatar Calendar House
Mercury, the smallest planet will be approaching Venus, the brightest planet, tomorrow, April 17, and the residents in Qatar can watch it.
Mercury will be at four degrees north of Venus's centre.
People can watch it over the eastern horizon of Qatar sky, at the dawn of Wednesday, Qatar Calendar House announced.
“You can observe the phenomenon of Mercury at its closest to Venus with naked eyes or by using an astronomical telescopes, provided you are in place without environmental and light pollutions,” says QCH astronomy expert Dr Beshir Marzouk.
Poeple can watch Mercury and Venus together till Sunrise, which is to happen on Wednesday at 5:11 am Doha local time. The rise of Mercury happen at 4:02 am.
“It’s a chance for amateur astronomers to know the map of the sky during the month and validate the astronomical calculations,” Dr Marzouk added.
Mercury approached Jupiter last time on October 29, 2018 and the angular distance between Venus and Mercury was three degrees.
Mercury is the nearest planet to the Sun in solar system and the the mean distance between Mercury and Sun is 58 million km and it has no satelites.
Venus is the second planet from the Sun and the mean distance between Venus and Sun is 108 million km, and it's sometimes called Earth's "sister planet" because of its similar size, mass, proximity to the Sun. Moreover, Venus is the third brightest objects in the sky after Sun and Moon.
