It never hit me that I was looking at a celestial frown.

When I returned home, I googled “moon planets alignment” to figure out what I had seen, and the first result screamed, “Tonight: Planets Align in a Frown.” In a rare conjunction event, Venus and Jupiter lined up side-by-side, just below the crescent moon – making an upside-down frown in the sky!

While pondering this celestial commentary and its coordination with some sobering recent headlines, I came upon the following search result, “Planets all smiles as galaxy puts on rare show.”

Now how could this be? Is it possible that the heavens were frowning for one journalist yet smiling for another?

Further reading of the “smiley” article provided the answer. The unhappy configuration was visible in the Northern hemisphere, while the cheerier counterpart smiled down upon stargazers in western Australia and other parts of the Southern hemisphere.

To me, seeing the frown was cool. But seeing the smiley must have been a whole lot cooler. The next planetary conjunction is slated for May 2013. I’m already planning my trip to Australia.