Whatever plans you had tonight, cancel ’em. Find somewhere away from the city lights, rug up warm, and watch Jupiter and Venus culminate their celestial dirty dancing by almost touching in the starry night sky.
Tasmanian Astronomical Society astronomer Steve Harvey gave the ABC pointers on how to spot the planets:
“Venus is a blazing bright yellow and just beside it is Jupiter, which is a sort of gold yellow, and Venus is the brighter of the two.”
“If it’s a clear night, with a jet black background, they are standing out strongly, much brighter than any stars.”
“They almost appear as though they are touching … they appear to be less than half of the width of the moon apart.”
Fingers crossed for clear skies. To spot them, look – I shit you not – north west / north-north-west, which is just overloading the Kim / Kanye / North West references circuit of Pedestrian, tbh.
It’s a phenomena that occurs only once every five to ten years, and after tonight’s lustful dance, they’ll be doing the awkward sprint the hell away from each other. Ah, billion year old love.
Heads up: if you’ve been looking for ultra romantic but not creepy dates for a certain Tinder flirtation, this is it.
Photo: Jamie Cooper via Getty Images (taken in 2009 – this is not an exact map of what to expect tonight)
via ABC
