'Rare celestial event augurs well for Aquino presidency'

MABALACAT, Pampanga , Philippines  – Local folks here witnessed last Sunday a rare celestial event where the planet Venus was clearly seen at an angle to the crescent moon, which they said augured well for the incoming presidency of front-runner Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.

“It was a crescent moon and at the farthest rim of its dark side was a brilliant object that made the moon resemble a ring with a large solitary diamond,” resident Daniel Cabrera, an employee of the municipal government, told The STAR.

The phenomenon happened at 7:36 p.m. Sunday and excited residents linked this to the incoming administration of Aquino, saying this was a harbinger of good things to come.

Astronomist Dr. Armando Lee, founder of the Philippine’s first commercial astronomical observatory, said it was indeed a rare phenomenon.

He explained that the occurrence, which lasted for five seconds, was a “lunar occultation of (the planet) Venus.”

“It was a thin, young crescent moon in the process of covering the planet Venus as seen from the earth,” he explained.

Astronomers define occultation as an event wherein one astronomical object is hidden by another that passes between it and the observer. Lunar occultations could also involve other planets or even stars, although occultations with planets create “narrow zones” where observers could see the planet’s disk partly blocked by the slowly moving moon.

But Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration’s Space and Science and Astronomy Section officer-in-charge Dario de la Cruz yesterday said there was nothing unusual about the celestial event, and that this happens every year.

Still there are many who wax prophetic about such an event.

Through the centuries, astrologers have interpreted such astronomical phenomena.

Astrologers associate the plannet Venus with the principles of harmony, beauty, balance and the urge to sympathize and unite with others, according to wikipedia.org.      In Chinese astrology, Venus is associated with the element metal or gold, which is “unyielding, strong and persistent,” while in Indian astrology, the planet is known to represent wealth, pleasure and reproduction.           – With Helen Flores