[Moo] Astronomical treat

[Jeanne]

Planets gather in spectacular conjunction
16:58 24 June 2005 
NewScientist.com news service 
Kelly Young

Over the next few days, stargazers in the northern hemisphere will be
treated to something unusual and spectacular over the western horizon and to
the left of the constellation Gemini.

Saturn, Mercury and Venus will gather low in the sky in what astronomers
call a conjunction. If you extend your arm out, all three planets will be
squeezed into an area of sky you can cover with just your pinky finger. 

On Monday, Venus and Mercury will get so close - less than one-tenth of a
degree apart - they will appear to merge. "That's usually pretty attention
getting," says Noreen Grice, operations coordinator of the Charles Hayden
Planetarium in Boston, Massachusetts, US. "Nowadays with city lights so
bright, I think a lot of people give up trying to look at the night sky."

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