Special Celestial Sight Dances Before Dawn

WASHINGTON - Before dawn for the next few days you'll see a special treat as two especially bright planets look as though they're about to collide.

Venus and Jupiter are lining up in the eastern sky, and Tuesday a crescent moon joins in.

"Then the unlit portion of the moon exhibits a real sky-watcher's treat, something we call Earthshine," says Greg Redfern, NASA's solar system ambassador.

Earthshine is a reflection of sunlight off of the earth's oceans and clouds that shines back into space and falls on the face of the unlit moon.

Redfern says, "It is one of the most beautiful sights. People see it but they don't know what it is."

With binoculars you'll be able to see the four main satellites of Jupiter. Jupiter will be just above and to the right of Venus.

Redfern says some scholars believe when the convergence happened in 2 B.C. that it created the star of Bethlehem.

The alignment, for some, is a sign of love, says Jan Carter, president of the Astrology Association of St. Petersburg, Fla.

Venus is the goddess of love.

"Jupiter is the energy of expansion and it accentuates that Venus energy," says Carter.

The planets are meeting in the portion of the sky devoted to Libra.

"Libra is about being conscious of other people - of the other - so it's a relationship sign," she says.

She says it two together give the world hope "that compassion can rule."

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