It was almost as if the celestial bodies were paying homage to the hundreds killed in the Oberoi Hotel, in the last week’s terror attacks. On Monday, cradled right above the battered Trident, was a heavenly “smiley” formed by a rare Venus, Jupiter and Moon conjunction. Precisely, the conjunction was evident when one looked south-west, 25 degree up in the sky between 7 and 8 pm.

Piyush Pandey, director of Nehru Planetarium said, “Usually the moon, which is closer to earth than other planets passes in front of several planets everyday. However, we tend not to see it because, the other planets are often so far away that they are not visible to the naked eyes. This time around, it has come closer to Jupiter and Venus, two clearly visible planets making it more evident.”

The process of the moon moving in front of other planets is called occultation, and when it comes close to planets is called conjunction, Pandey said. The Nehru Planetarium stated that Venus was occulted by the Moon Monday night but that was not visible from India. It could be seen from Europe, Scandinavia and parts of Canada.