Jordan | Jordanian Astronomical Society: Planetary conjunctions at the end of May

2024-05-19 2024-05-19T11:36:13Z

Weather of Arabia - The President of the Jordanian Astronomical Society, Dr. Ammar Al-Sakkji, said on Sunday that different geometric distributions of the planets will occur at the end of May in Jordan, known as the alignment of the planets on the ecliptic line, as well as different conjunctions and obscurations, and according to studies of gravitational forces, this geometric distribution has no meaning. Relationship with predicting earthquakes on Earth or any terrestrial and astrological events. In addition to various conjunctions and occultations.

Al-Sakkji added in a statement that the gravitational effect of these planets on Earth is very small, as they are millions of kilometers away from Earth, and although we may see them superficially close, the distances between them are very vast. He continued, saying:

“One of the best times to follow the alignment of the planets is Friday, May 31, 2024, as this geometric distribution of the planets begins to rise from Jordan’s eastern horizon, and begins with the rise of the moon at 0:53 am, followed by the rise of planet Saturn at 1:37 am, as well as the rise of planet Mars at 3:08. In the morning, the planet Uranus at 4:39 am, the planet Mercury at 4:43 am, Jupiter at 5:05, as well as the planet Venus at 5:32, and then sunrise at 5:34 am, according to the location and time of Jordan, and the alignment time from Jordan on Friday, shortly before 5:14 AM, where the following geometric alignment is: the Moon, the planet Saturn, the planet Mars, the planet Uranus, the planet Mercury, and the planet Jupiter, which “may require optical tools such as telescopes and binoculars to monitor and view it.” As for the planet Venus, the matter is difficult because of its approach and coincidence with sunrise".

He explained that conjunction usually occurs between two or more celestial bodies as they appear close to each other in the sky as seen from Earth. As for occultation, it occurs when a celestial body occults another celestial body, and occultation occurs when the celestial body passes in front of another body as seen from Earth. . These astronomical events will take place on the morning of Friday, May 31, and the conjunction of Mercury and Uranus will take place at 4:24 AM. This conjunction is not visible from Jordan, and the conjunction of the Moon and Saturn is at 11:08 AM, where the conjunction can be seen in Nador at 1:30 AM on the southern horizon. -East of Jordan, or the great closeness between the Moon and Saturn, which occurs at 11:26 AM and cannot be seen from Jordan, and the lunar occultation of Saturn is from 9:23 AM to 13:29 PM and is not visible from Jordan, and can be seen from Argentina, Chile and Brazil. Uruguay, Antarctica, Falkland Islands, South Georgia, South Sandwich and St. Helena.

He pointed out that the lunar occultation can only be seen from a small part of the Earth's surface. Because the Moon is much closer to the Earth than other celestial bodies, its exact location in the sky varies depending on your precise location on Earth due to its large parallax, or so-called shift, and the Moon’s position as seen from two points on opposite sides of the Earth varies by up to two degrees, or Four times the diameter of the full moon, this means that if the Moon is aligned to pass in front of a particular object relative to an observer on one side of the Earth, it will appear two degrees away from that object on the other side of the Earth.