Saturday, November 28, 2020

The Great Conjunction

The last such alignment was in 1226, the year St. Louis IX of France began his  reign. From SciTechDaily:

Just after sunset on the evening of December 21, 2020, Jupiter and Saturn will appear closer together in Earth’s night sky than they have been since the Middle Ages, offering people the world over a celestial treat to ring in the winter solstice.

“Alignments between these two planets are rather rare, occurring once every 20 years or so, but this conjunction is exceptionally rare because of how close the planets will appear to one another,” said Rice University astronomer Patrick Hartigan. “You’d have to go all the way back to just before dawn on March 4, 1226, to see a closer alignment between these objects visible in the night sky.”

Jupiter and Saturn have been approaching one another in Earth’s sky since the summer. From December 16-25, the two will be separated by less than the diameter of a full moon. (Read more.)

 

From EarthSky:

Astronomers use the word conjunction to describe meetings of planets and other objects on our sky’s dome. They use the term great conjunction to describe meetings of the two biggest worlds in our solar system, mighty Jupiter and the glorious ringed planet Saturn. The next great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn will be December 21, 2020. That date is, coincidentally, the date of the December solstice. It’ll be the first Jupiter-Saturn conjunction since the year 2000, and the closest Jupiter-Saturn conjunction since 1623, only 14 years after Galileo made his first telescope. At their closest, Jupiter and Saturn will be only 0.1 degree apart. That’s just 1/5 of a full moon diameter. (Read more.)

More HERE. And HERE.


Meanwhile, there is a full moon eclipse on November 30. From LiveScience:

Skywatchers admiring November's full moon will also get to see another treat: a penumbral eclipse, when the moon passes through Earth's outer shadow, on Monday, Nov. 30, according to NASA.

The moon will be at its fullest for only a moment — on Monday, that happens at 4:30 a.m. EST (9:30 UTC) — but the moon will appear full for three days: from Saturday night through Tuesday morning (Nov. 28 to Dec. 1).  

Meanwhile, sky gazers need to remember three times to catch the penumbral eclipse: It starts before the full moon at 2:32 a.m. EST (7:32 UTC); reaches its maximum at 4:42 a.m. EST (9:42 UTC), when 83% of the moon will be covered with Earth's faint shadow; and ends at 6:53 a.m. EST (11:53 UTC) Monday morning, according to timeanddate.com(Read more.)


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