Pollution-free sky makes planets visible to naked eye

Hyderabad: If you're an avid astronomy lover or a sky watcher, now you can stargaze from your balconies or terraces too.

One of the best things to happen due to lockdown is pollution levels falling considerably and making the night sky clearer.

With depletion in pollution levels and change in weather, even the planets have become visible for the naked eyes, say astronomers.

Explaining further, BG Siddharth, Director, Birla Planetarium, Hyderabad, said," If we search the sky for planet visibility, we can spot one planet in the evening sky and three in the morning sky.

Out of the three planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars, the latter two are snugged close together as April begins, then as the month progresses they all gradually stretch out becoming equally spaced apart.

The moon pays all three a visit, then Mars, the fastest of the trio, leaves Saturn and Jupiter behind as it brightens noticeably as it approaches earth," he added.

But the lone evening planet, venus, steals the show. It passes exceedingly close to the Pleiades Star Cluster during the opening days of April, stays above the horizon until almost midnight, dropping down the western sky side-by-side with a lovely crescent moon, and attaining the peak of its head-turning brilliance the very next night.

However, it was impossible to spot these planets with the naked eye in city. Earlier one had to go kilometers away from the city where there was minimal pollution and clear skies.

Due to the recent lockdown, there is a dip in pollution in and across the city, which has led to less pollution and a clearer sky. Hence one can spot these planets easily with their naked eyes, concludes B Siddharth.