Watch Venus disappear behind the moon; choose a place from where you can see western horizon; no telescopes and no binoculars.
It is very unlikely that any body would have missed Venus, the dazzling bright dot in the evening sky. Its only rival is the moon. No wonder, moon wants to dominate the scene. In the process, it will also enact a trick of hiding Venus for a while.
This year we have several opportunities of this type of hide and seek in the sky. However, not all shows are slated for us. The forthcoming show is scheduled again for the West Asians, but we definitely have a share. As the twilight settles, a bejeweled crescent moon us.
One can reach the open, or the terrace or peep out from the window. Binoculars would be good but not essential.
Select a spot from where you can see the moonset. Follow the duo every ten minutes or so. The moon inches his way towards Venus. And at 8:43 pm plop! Venus disappears behind the moon (as seen from Bangalore). The time of the event may differ by a few minutes for other cities. This would look like magic because the edge of the moon may or may not be visible. Moon at that instant will be very close to the horizon and sets within the next few minutes with Venus behind it. Thus we donot get to see Venus at all.
However, moon moves away revealing Venus a little later, but then both are below our horizon.
The next evening, Venus is back in all its glory and the moon far away next to Saturn! It covers and uncovers Saturn during the day.

Occultations
These events are called occultations – events similar to eclipses - only instead of the sun being covered by the moon, it is a different object.
Venus occultation is quite spectacular and easily observed without any optical aids. There are others too – for example, the very next day (19th) moon covers the planet Saturn. However, from Bangalore we would have seen this planet just move past the edge of Moon – this event is termed Grazing occultation.

The author is with the
Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium