Hyderabad: Three celestial events will take place on Monday, January 4. The earth will be closet to the sun, there will be a meteor shower and the moon will be in conjunction with Mars. When the earth is at its closest to the sun, the phenomenon is known as “perihelion”, this happens every year in January.
Meanwhile, the Quadrantids meteor shower will be at its peak on January 4, when 60 to 120 meteors will be visible per hour after 2.30 am in the east and northeast direction. And while telescopes will not be needed to see this event, the air quality must be good to see the meteor showers with the naked eye. Also on Monday, the moon and Mars will be seen close to each other from earth. This conjunction can also be seen without the help of a telescope.
Mr Raghunandan Kumar, founder and secretary of Planetary Society of India, said, “Mars can be visible from earth with the naked eye every two years. This time the moon can be used to spot Mars as they will appear very close to each other. This conjunction too can be seen with the naked eye. The sight that they are ‘actually appearing’ close to each other is mesmerising and this phenomenon will continue till May 2016.”
Despite the huge distance they will appear very close and can be seen from 2 am onwards in the night sky in January.
Will not impact us: Experts
The celestial events of January 4 will not have any major impact on human life, stated astrologers on Saturday. They however added that Venus and Saturn coming together on January 9 is a cause of concern.
Astrologer Sreenivasa Gargeya said, “Saturn and Venus are powerful planets and their coming close to each other will create ripples in political circles and also in the lives of public figures and artists who are guided by these stars.”
The two planets will be visible in the eastern sky before sunrise.
