For the first time in 800 years, you can watch a "great conjunction" of Jupiter and Saturn

[BainsBane]

Jupiter and Saturn are due to converge in their orbits on Monday, appearing as a double planet in the night sky — the first such occurrence in almost 800 years.

The two planets have been near one another throughout the year, according to Rice University astronomer Patrick Hartigan. They will reach their closest approach, passing within 0.1 degrees of each other during the winter solstice on December 21, the longest night of the year.

The two celestial bodies pass one another about every 20 years, according to the Mount Wilson Observatory, in Los Angeles County, in what is referred to as a “great conjunction,” because they are the two largest planets.

But a passage as close as the one expected Monday has happened only a handful of times in the last two millennia. And two of those occurrences, one in 769 and one in 1623, happened too close to the sun to be seen with the unaided eye.

The last time a person could clearly see this event was on March 4, 1226. . .

Depending on weather conditions, however, those in the Northern Hemisphere should be able to glimpse the planets at twilight, for about an hour after sunset, by looking to the southwest.

https://www.vox.com/2020/12/19/22190612/jupiter-saturn-align-great-conjunction-double-planet-800-years

[Cha]

1. TY for this.. it is exciting! Short simulation

Vid at the link..

https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/planets/great-conjunction

[BainsBane]

2. Interesting

Thanks for linking to that.

[Cha]

5. You're Welcome!

[Hugin]

3. I went out and took a peek last night.

SPECTACULAR!

I'm glad there were few clouds or haze right now.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

4. How high from the horizon was it, roughly in degrees?

Will try to observe it tonight with binoculars. I'm in north-central Kentucky.

KY

[Hugin]

9. I'm somewhat south of you.

I'd say I was looking at around 250 degrees (or 20 degrees less than due West) and about 60-70 degrees up from the horizon. It was around midnight.

So, I guess you'd look off more to your Southwest by 10 or 20 degrees. Let's say, try 220 - 230 degrees.

I didn't have any trouble seeing the planets and a small separation with the naked eye. Tonight I'm planning on dragging out my telescope.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

13. Thanks, Hugin. We'll give it a shot tonight if it's clear.

My 'scope is in pieces but I do have some decent binoculars.

Appreciate your detailed info!


KY..........

[Hugin]

14. I would have given it to you in mils, but, I can't count that high.

I was surprised at how obvious it is in the sky. Hopefully, you won't have any trouble finding it.

Definitely, much easier to see than Halley's was in the '80s. A love interest and I went way out in the desert to see that bust one night. We ended up smooching. So, it was a win for me.

Good luck!

[mitch96]

16. If you go to the time/date web site you can plug in your area and see a graphic of where it will

be in the nite sky and at what time... Select the planet you want to see and just move the slider bar.. Here is the one for my area of west central florida.
m
https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/night/

[Hugin]

18. +1

Fantastic link!

[Baclava]

35. Thats awesome! Thx, clear sky, yay

[cbdo2007]

6. I'll have my 10" dobsonian scope set up to watch!

Found a good park by my house (near Kansas City) with good south/east horizon views so I'll be all set up and ready to go. Clear skies predicted!!

I've been watching the planets pretty closely for the past couple of weeks and last night was amazing, how close they were. Like seriously they already looked right next to each other in the eyepiece that I can't even imagine what tonight will look like, it will almost look like they are orbiting around each other.

[BainsBane]

7. You're way ahead of me

I'd be hard pressed to even find the planets.

[cbdo2007]

8. They are pretty easy to find with the naked eye...Jupiter is the brightest thing

in the sky right now, especially at that place and time.

Just get a semi-unobstructed view of the southern sky between 5:45-6:45 (cst) tonight and it will be about 30 degrees up from the horizon and will be super bright. Saturn will be less bright but still easily visible directly next to it.

[BainsBane]

10. Okay, I'll give that a try

thanks for the tip.

[Hugin]

12. Is that the time when the conjunction is the brightest or the tightest?

I've been able to see them all the way from rise to set.

[cbdo2007]

23. Should be brightest and tightest

The brightness shouldn't be changing much for the planets at this time of year, but you typically can't see them until sunset and then they set within 1.5 hours or so, unless you are up on a hill and get more southern horizon time. I believe tonight though is when they are "tightest"

[BainsBane]

32. I'm out of luck

It's too cloudy.

[Hugin]

33. There is a slight haze here.

Otherwise, clear.

I'll tell them you were thinking of them.

As always, the best view will probably appear on the tee-vee machine. I know it's not the same as seeing them yourself. It seems to be how things are done these days.

[MuseRider]

15. I am a bit West of you

South of Topeka out in the boonies that are rapidly losing their dark sky. My farm is still dark if I face South. The city as decided every big warehouse and distributing center will be built out here and we will likely be totally unable if a few months when the big Walmart distribution center is open

We are still dark enough to once in a while get a good Milky Way but the stars this summer have been amazing. I will look tonight, if you can get a good sighting close to KC we should be able to get one here.

Thank you!

[cbdo2007]

25. Yes and they are bright enough that light pollution shouldn't matter.

The brightest planets are usually pretty easy to see. I'm in the northern part of KC so tonight I will be looking right into the "city glow". Sometimes I'll drive farther North or East to get some darker skies but not venturing out too far tonight.

[roamer65]

11. I got a window of clear weather in MI yesterday evening.

It was cool to see them together without having to move the telescope. Figured I’d better grab the opportunity, since it’s gonna be cloudy rest of week.

Last time anyone could see this event was the year 1226.

[JHB]

19. For practical comparison, the apparent size of the moon and Sun from Earth is 0.5 degrees

So their separation will be a fifth of the size of the moon. Pretty dang close.

[BainsBane]

20. What's amazing to me

Is how seldom this happens.

[JHB]

22. In the words of Douglas Adams, "Space is big, really big."

So these things don't happen unless everything gets lined up just right.

With orbital periods of nearly 12 years for Jupiter and 29.5 for Saturn, then adding in orbital inclinations and eccentricities, and just right takes a while to arrange.

[cbdo2007]

27. Correct and I think the last time it happened this close...some 400 years ago,

they couldn't see it on Earth because we were on the opposite side of the sun. So while they do get fairly close every 20 years or so, it is true that things need to line up just right for it to be this great view. A Jupiter/Saturn occultation (where Jupiter would actually eclipse Saturn from our viewing point) would be even more amazing but I think they only estimate that would happen once every 160,000 years or so lol.

[spinbaby]

21. I wish I could see it

Unfortunately, I live in western PA, which is permanently overcast this time of year.

[Lucinda]

26. It might not be the same as being there - but I suspect there will be live feeds online

[Lucinda]

24. ❤️ ✿❧🌿❧✿ ❤️

[Baclava]

28. Signs and portents! Earthquakes, volcanoes, its all cracking open!!! Cthulhu Rising!

[JHB]

29. Dogs and cats, living together!

[Baclava]

30. Oh u jest, but if that big slab of Hawaii cracks off into the sea in this latest eruption...

U can say u heard it here first!

[Hortensis]

31. Nearly time for best visibility in the eastern states.

Here in central FL there are light wind-blown bands clouds to the SW, and they're not visible now, so... maybe.

[Towlie]

34. I can now see them clearly from South Florida. Saturn is at the 2:00 position from Jupiter.

 
?

[mtnsnake]

45. From my area in NYS, Saturn is usually at the 11:00 position from Jupiter.

That's interesting how there's that kind of a difference depending on what part of the country you're from

[Towlie]

50. I don't believe there's such a place where Saturn is "usually" in some position relative to Jupiter.

 
?

Planets move around in the sky, which is why they're called planets. The word comes from an ancient Greek word meaning "to wander".

But your location matters at a specific point in time because for you it could still be bright daylight or the two planets could be below the horizon.

[mtnsnake]

51. That could very well be

I'll have to look into that. My wife and I used to live in an area where we had virtually no light pollution in our back yard which made for amazing star gazing. Now that we've moved, we have to go searching for dark areas, which isn't easy sometimes.

[AmyStrange]

36. Who lives to be 800-years-old?

-

ha ha, just kidding.
=========

[R B Garr]

37. My husband just told me about this! We're picking our

spot to watch.

[BainsBane]

38. Good luck!

I can't see it through the clouds.

[R B Garr]

44. Thanks! He has the Sky View* app and was just showing me

how close they are. Last month he noticed they were pretty close and mentioned it...now this development.

We got sidetracked with his work, so we’ll have to settle for whatever we can get now. Sigh.

*edit: or Skyview. It’s on his Android.

[ProfessorGAC]

39. Bummer!

Dense cloud cover came in a about 3 hours ago.
And, we had bright sunny skies until then.
Bad luck.
I expect I'll still be able to see it after they cross for a couple days.

[BainsBane]

40. I've got a solution for that

Youtube.

[ProfessorGAC]

42. Cool!

Thanks. I was thinking about looking for a link, but now I don't have to!

[The Snitch]

41. very cool.

jupiter and saturn have been really spectacular this fall.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

43. My son called to remind me and I got out just in time to see it before it set behind the trees.

OT, but ...

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/dufor2020runoff

A few questions: https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=14520874

and answers: https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=14520972

[mtnsnake]

46. One of the best shows ever about Jupiter & the planets is a Nova show called "The Planets: Jupiter"

which was aired on PBS. If you can ever find a rerun of it, don't miss it. It was one of the most interesting shows about the planets I've ever seen. It shows closeups of Jupiter and some of its moons as well as some of the most amazing facts about Jupiter and its effects on the planet Earth.

[BainsBane]

47. I'll look for that

I hope they rerun it.

[MontanaMama]

48. It's below the horizon

In our mountain valley...so I’m very appreciative of the perspective of others who can see this. Beautiful.

[Dawson Leery]

49. kick