Space Museum stages new exhibition to highlight six major astronomical events in 2020

23 January 2020 rsbradbeer SCIENCE 0

jupiter transit — A series of “eclipse”, “transit” and “occultation” phenomena of Jupiter’s Galilean moons will happen within a few hours on 11 – 12 June

The Hong Kong Space Museum is staging a new special exhibition “2020 Astronomical Events” from 22 January at the foyer to feature six spectacular astronomical events happening this year. The exhibition explains the details and phenomena of the events, while serving as a practical guide to help visitors pick the best dates, times, locations and tools to observe them.

partial — About 85% of the solar disc area will be blocked at the greatest eclipse on 21 June1

The six events featured in the exhibition include “grouping of the four planets with the moon” in late March, the “serial phenomena of Jupiter’s moons” on 11 -12 June, and the “partial solar eclipse” on 21 June. Visitors will also be able to gather information on the “Perseid meteor shower” in mid-August, the “Geminid meteor shower” in mid-December and the “Jupiter-Saturn conjunction” on 21 December.

conjunction — Jupiter and Saturn will be extremely close to each other on 21 December, which is a rare phenomenon repeating roughly every 20 years

Admission to the exhibition is free. It will run until 21 September in two phases; the first three events will be presented during the first phase from January to June, while the remaining three will be introduced in the second phase from June to September.

meteor showers — A meteor shower occurs when the Earth encounters a relatively dense region of meteoroids in space Photo: Yin Hao)

The exhibition is presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and organised by the Hong Kong Space Museum. For more details: hk.space.museum

The Hong Kong Space Museum is located at 10 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon.