Last Sunday evening, 16 May 2010, lucky people, probably you, might have recieved a "front-row seat" with a common and yet always awesome sight – the “evening star” visibly sitting on top of a crescent moon.



At that amazing moment, people were all abuzz by this breathtaking sight as people took photos of this astrological occurrence and posted it on social media sites such as yahoo.


 
As most of you may have already known, the “evening star” is actually one of the planets in the solar system, Venus. Based on my research, Venus is one of the brightest object in the night sky after Moon so people, in the early days (before we has astronomy), thought it was a star.




Actually, when Venus is seen in the easter sky before the sunrise, it is usually referred to as a “morning star” and when it is seen in the evening in the west after sunset which is similar to what had happened on Sunday evening, it is called an “evening star.”


So how does Venus appears as a star? This is due to Venus’ orbit which lies inside Earth’s orbit around the Sun. When the orbit of Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun, it also reflects the light of the Sun to earth at the same time so that when it moves from the evening to the morning sky, thus it becomes very visible to us and appears as a “star”.

Maybe, some people who have seen this view may think that some natural phenomenon might occur when the crescent moon and Venus are being so close together. But trust me, in my opinion, this natural phenomenon has no effect on Earth. These planetary alignments have been happening for the longest time and till now, there is never been a documented effect to our planet. So don't worry........

 
However, have you ever wondered why the crescent moon and star has come to symbolize Islam? If I am not wrong, the crescent moon and star symbol actually pre-dates Islam by several thousand years. Most sources say that these ancient celestial symbols were used by the peoples of Central Asia and Siberia in their worship of the sun, moon and sky gods. In this Wikipedia article, it says that possibly the symbol became associated with the Muslim faith when the Ottoman Empire became affiliated with the Muslim world.


So, now you can see how fascinating the 'Evening star' and the crescent moon are! Isn't interesting? And good news to astronomy fans who may have missed their chance to see this breathtaking sight, you may want to visit the following link for more images of the 'Evening Star' and the crescent moon: http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=rec&w=all&q=venus+moon&m=text