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<DIV><TT>Planets gather in spectacular conjunction<BR>16:58 24 June 2005
<BR>NewScientist.com news service <BR>Kelly Young<BR><BR>Over the next few days,
stargazers in the northern hemisphere will be<BR>treated to something unusual
and spectacular over the western horizon and to<BR>the left of the constellation
Gemini.<BR><BR>Saturn, Mercury and Venus will gather low in the sky in what
astronomers<BR>call a conjunction. If you extend your arm out, all three planets
will be<BR>squeezed into an area of sky you can cover with just your pinky
finger. <BR><BR>On Monday, Venus and Mercury will get so close - less than
one-tenth of a<BR>degree apart - they will appear to merge. "That's usually
pretty attention<BR>getting," says Noreen Grice, operations coordinator of the
Charles Hayden<BR>Planetarium in Boston, Massachusetts, US. "Nowadays with city
lights so<BR>bright, I think a lot of people give up trying to look at the night
sky."<BR><BR>--MORE--<BR><BR><!--StartFragment --><FONT
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