Astrological analysis

Tonight's the night, if you're in the mood for love. Why? Because if you look at the moon at about nine this evening you'll see that next to it on the right side is the bright light of Venus, and next to it on the left is the fainter light of Mars. The moon is moving between the pair of them. It passes Venus at about half past eleven this morning, and passes Mars at about half-past nine this evening, and between those times it is supposed to be transferring the influence of the one to the other, thus bringing Venus and Mars together; and as we all know, Venus and Mars are hot stuff when they get close.

Wouldn't it be better, though, to wait until Venus and Mars actually meet up, instead of having to use a third party like the moon? Ordinarily, yes - but not this time. If you look out at Venus and Mars after sunset each night over the next few weeks you'll see something odd happening. After being so high in the evening skies for so long, Venus and Mars start to slip backwards towards the horizon, appearing lower and lower each night. Worse, the distance between Venus and Mars visibly increases, taking them further apart instead of closer together.

What's going on? Well, in astronomical terms, the sun is moving faster through the zodiac than either Venus or Mars, so each day as the sun goes down the planetary pair are seen to be slightly less in front of the sun than they were the day before; but as from Monday, Venus will be the slower of the pair, and Mars appears to pull away. Venus can't catch up.

In time, of course, Venus will speed up again, pursue Mars once more, and catch him - but it will take her until the end of the year to do it. This weekend is the closest they get until December, and since we've got the moon there today to help, it makes sense to use it. That's why it has to be tonight. Phone your favourite restaurant right now, and book a table for two before everybody else gets the same idea.