When the moon hits your eyes like last night

Through the twilight yesterday, millions of people around the world could see a close three-way conjunction of Venus, Jupiter and the crescent moon.

From some areas in Europe, North West Africa and the North Atlantic Ocean, the moon actually covered the planet Venus for over an hour, in an event known as a lunar occultation.

From Malta this was only possible from the north western coast of Gozo, at San Dimitri point near Dwejra, at 5.55 p.m. The rest of the Maltese islands saw a close grouping of the three brightest objects in the night sky. We were lucky enough that it occurred in the moon's crescent phase. A fuller moon would have taken away from the planets' brilliance.

The brightest of the two planets, Venus, is set to remain high in the southwest all throughout this month, while Jupiter will be descending the western skies.

Venus is usually visible during dusk or dawn, hence its popular name as the Evening Star or the Morning Star.

The moon, Jupiter and Venus come together from time to time, but often they are too close to the Sun or unite at a time when they are not so visible. The next time the three heavenly bodies will be as close and visible as this evening will be on November 18, 2052!

They might look close together, but in reality both planets are separated by over 800 million kilometres.

Jupiter and Venus are particularly bright, partly because both have highly reflective clouds that completely envelope them, but also because Venus is Earth's closest neighbour while Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system.

Last night's planetary convergence is special because it occurred at a particularly favourable time of day: in the early evening when nearly everyone worldwide had a chance to witness it. In fact the striking appearance of the conjunction caught the attention of even those unfamiliar with the sky.

Some historians think that a similar approach between Jupiter and Venus in 2 BC may have been the source of the star of Bethlehem story found in the Bible. The stellar pair would have appeared so close together that they might have seemed to blend into one brilliant beacon of light.