I have long been curious about the symbol of the crescent moon with the star. I did what research I could (at the time, when I had the time) and found that it may have originated in Turkey. Also, It was suggested that the star is actually Venus(making this a combination of two celestial bodies that are historically fem. symbols).
My endless curiousity has driven me to some questions that I could not simply satisfy with a two beer google… When do these orbs allign in this picturesgue configuration…Is it anually…mellenially…Was it at a significant time of socio-political-spiritual-bla-bla-bla…or is this something I should forget and just pretend to get back to focusing on my job?
I don’t have specific dates, but the Moon passing right next to Venus should happen more frequently than a partial solar eclipse, less frequently than a total eclipse. In the case of Venus, the Moon would need to pass by a particular point in the sky, plus or minus a half-degree. A partial eclipse would be plus or minus one degree.
Oops, I said that backwards. More frequently than a total eclipse, less frequently than a partial eclipse.
The Moon passes by Venus in conjunction every month. However, many of the conjunctions aren’t particularly close, because the Moon can stray pretty far from the ecliptic, and of the ones that are close, many occur during daylight.
The Turkish flag depicts a very close conjunction between the Moon and a “star” (we’ll assume it’s Venus)–one so close that Venus is either about to, or has just been, occulted by the Moon. Such occultations are infrequent, but not terribly rare–from a given location, a lunar occultation visible during twilight or darkness will occur at irregular intervals averaging roughly 10 or 20 years.
And may I say, that’s not a very astronomically correct crescent Moon!