Jupiter - Saturn Great Conjunction

 If you look at the sky just past sunset, Mars is still running the show somewhere in mid-sky. But the second brightest object is Jupiter. If you look at the Western sky to-night (9 Dec.) around 8 pm, he will be right there at 30 degrees above the horizon, with his mate Saturn very close, just a bit higher and on the right.

Jupiter is chasing Saturn at the moment and it’s getting a bit closer every day. On next Thursday night (17 Dec.) at 8pm, the Moon crescent will be right there too. Weather permitting it will be dead easy to find the Moon, then the Jupiter Saturn pair just under it a bit to the right.

Why do I make a fuss about this? Well by then it will be almost impossible to separate Jupiter and Saturn by naked eye. This is called a conjunction. Jupiter goes around the Sun in about 10 years, and Saturn in about 30 years. So a conjunction occurs more or less every 20 years. How close the two planets get is variable as it depends on the inclination of their respective orbits. The conjunction we are about to see this month is called a great conjunction. On December 21, the Earth, Jupiter and Saturn will be in perfect alignment. This is a very rare event. The last one happened in Johannes Kepler’s day back in 1623. And for this to happen right on Winter Solstice… Once in a million years maybe?

Surely this is a nice show to follow every night around 8 pm, better with binoculars and great with a small telescope.

Useful website: https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/night/@2172153

The picture above is taken from that website.