Irish astronomers have said those who missed the stunning Northern Lights that were visible over Ireland in the past 48 hours, are in for an even more stunning spectacle later this week.
On Wednesday and Thursday, David Moore, of Astronomy Ireland, says we are in for “an even brighter sight” in Irish skies.
The planets Venus and Jupiter will outshine all of the stars in the sky as they pass extremely close to one another between sunset and 8pm.
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Speaking about the incredibly rare occurrence, Mr. Moore said: "I can't remember ever seeing Jupiter and Venus this close in the evening sky and to have two brilliant objects so close together is bound to startle the general public as they look over in the West when the suns go down, although ominous to the naked eye, there is nothing to be concerned about as this is merely a light of sight.
“The brighter of the two is the planet Venus which is actually four times closer than Jupiter, which is the dimmer of the pair.
“As you stand gazing at the celestial wonder think about how Jupiter, although dimmer, is actually a dozen times wider than Venus”.
Both objects will look a simple shade of white to the naked eye despite Venus having a surface of nearly 500 degrees Celsius and Jupiter's cloud topping a chilly -130 degrees Celsius.
Facts that ancient stargazers would never have known but modern humans, having sent spacecraft to both planets now know to be true.
Venus is 200 million kilometres from us and Jupiter is nearly 900 million kilometres away from us.
"Although the alignment is closest on Wednesday and Thursday nights with the pair roughly one moon diameter apart they will be a spectacular sight relatively close to each other for several days thereafter so do view every evening until next week and please write to Astronomy Ireland magazine telling us what you see of this rare celestial alignment".
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