They won't be colliding of course, but will appear almost as a singular planet. First time in 800 years

"by: Nexstar Media Wire
Posted: Nov 24, 2020 / 03:22 PM EST / Updated: Nov 24, 2020 / 03:22 PM EST

The Milky Way’s Galactic Centre and Jupiter (brightest spot at center top) are seen from the countryside near the small town of Reboledo, department of Florida, Uruguay, early on August 24, 2020. (Photo by MARIANA SUAREZ/AFP via Getty Images)
(NEXSTAR) — The world will soon see a planetary phenomenon that hasn’t occurred in 800 years.

On Dec. 21, the date of the December solstice, Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, and ringed Saturn, the second-largest, will line up perfectly to look like a double planet in the night sky.

The two planets will be so close that they will appear to be touching, separated by one-fifth the diameter of a full moon. It will be the closest they’ve appeared since March 4, 1226.

“The two planets have been brilliant highlights of the night sky for much of this year, and are now getting closer together in advance of their super close pairing in mid-December,” NASA said. “Be sure to watch as they draw a little nearer to each other each week.”

When celestial bodies align, it’s called conjunction, but since this one involves our solar system’s two biggest gas giants, it’s known as the “great conjunction.”

Though the two planets will look close together, they actually will be more than four times the distance between Earth and the sun.

Great conjunctions happen on average every 19.6 years.

You can catch next month’s rare sight — look for a single point of bright light — in the western sky just after sunset. This super-close Jupiter-Saturn alignment isn’t expected again until March 15, 2080."

https://www.wowktv.com/news/ju...Q3LM_yYt4Q9kRdHMq18M

And it happens on my birthday. What a present!

flashguy

I was just getting ready to post something about this. Start looking south by southwest just after sunset: They will be hard to miss even if you live in a city with a lot of light pollution. You should be able to resolve the rings of Saturn with a good pair of binocs.

I might have to drag my 6" Meade out to the boonies for a peek.

(The only heavenly body I've been able to observe from where I live belongs to the girl next door. or depending...

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Shugart:
I was just getting ready to post something about this. Start looking south by southwest just after sunset: They will be hard to miss even if you live in a city with a lot of light pollution. You should be able to resolve the rings of Saturn with a good pair of binocs.

I might have to drag my 6" Meade out to the boonies for a peek.

(The only heavenly body I've been able to observe from where I live belongs to the girl next door. or depending...

I have a cheap refracting telescope I tried using years ago. Didn't invest in any barlow lenses.

Actually had better luck viewing stars and planets wiyh my Steiner 10 x 50 binoculars I had at the time.

Check out some of the newer scopes.

They used to be a pain in the ass to set up. The ones now just require mounting them so they don't fall over and turning them on. The scope downloads the time, your coordinates, etc. Aligns itself to true north. It then asks you what you want to look at. You can type in celestial coordinates or the names of thousands of objects (M31, Moon, Orion, etc.). The scope will then slew around and get it into the viewing field. You can even buy eyepieces what will automatically focus. Galileo would've cut off his dick for this: His scope was a piece of shit.

Damn. I've gotta go to bed. Otherwise I'll be dropping some serious money tonight.

To start you off: Meade ETX 125

I’ve been watching them for the past six months. And further east has been Mars which is closing the gap as well. Seeing hadn’t been really steady here until about a week ago. Can see some nice banding detail on Jupiter.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Shugart:
Check out some of the newer scopes.

They used to be a pain in the ass to set up. The ones now just require mounting them so they don't fall over and turning them on. The scope downloads the time, your coordinates, etc. Aligns itself to true north. It then asks you what you want to look at. You can type in celestial coordinates or the names of thousands of objects (M31, Moon, Orion, etc.). The scope will then slew around and get it into the viewing field. You can even buy eyepieces what will automatically focus. Galileo would've cut off his dick for this: His scope was a piece of shit.

Damn. I've gotta go to bed. Otherwise I'll be dropping some serious money tonight.

To start you off: Meade ETX 125

Another good place to shop.

https://www.telescope.com/?gcl...7EAAYASAAEgJuTvD_BwE

Let’s hear from nhtagmember. I have a few nice small scopes. He’s got a frickin’ observatory!

I just looked at the forecast of the sky on that date in Sky Safari. If we’e lucky—no obstructions on the horizon and a clear night—we’ll get a few minutes glimpse of the two planets before they set at 6:45 pm PST in San Diego. It may be worthwhile getting out to a dark sky sight.

Between then and now I need to get my Olympus camera hooked up to one of my scopes: the Questar, the Televue 85, or the Takahashi 102. The Questar has a motor drive; with the other scopes I’d need to put them on the iOptron equatorial mount.
My scopes have been in their cases for a couple of years with rare attempts at observing. At least this event provides some motivation to get off my ass and out at night to do some viewing and some photography.

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
And it happens on my birthday. What a present!

flashguy

The day after my birthday and the first day of winter. Ugg!

Jim

"The Great Conjunction Comes!"