Venus Elongation measurements for the 29th of March 2004
29th of March turns out to be a very interesting day for the elongation measurements as all the five naked eye planets will be lined up in an interesting and rare formation and should present good views.
Here is how the planets will look on the 29th of March, as seen from Delhi.
So we have not only the elongation measurements of Venus to enjoy, but, can also try our hands at locating the positions of other planets in the sky, particularly when we use the Ram Yantra at Jantar Mantar, for position measurements.
All the other naked eye planets than Mercury, have been gracing the evening skies for the last several weeks. Mercury will be joining them towards the end of March, with the interesting coincidence that both Mercury and Venus will be reaching their maximum elongation on the same date - March 29 - just an interesting coincidence this time of 2004. Some methods for measureing the elongation of Venus are given here.
Details for the March 29th Jantar Mantar measurements will be given here.
The importance of the elongation measurements for the measurement of the Astronomical Unit, using Transit observations is discussed here.