The Winter Solstice Great Conjunction is tonight!!! We are in the Exumas and hopefully the sky will be clear for is tonight.
The "Christmas Star" or some Biblical scholars believe the
“Star of Bethlehem” was a triple conjunction made up of the following:
Jupiter -
known as the king planet
Venus -
the brightest planet in our solar system
The star Regulus -
known as the kingly star in the constellation Leo
Jupiter and Saturn conjunctions are the rarest of bright-planet conjunctions due to their slow orbits around the sun. Saturn takes nearly 30 years to complete its circle around the sun whereas Jupiter takes nearly 12 years. So just about every 20 years, Jupiter catches up to Saturn as viewed from Earth causing a great conjunction.
This year’s great conjunction will be very special due to the close proximity of the two planets. On December 21, 2020 Jupiter and Saturn will be only 0.1 degree apart, which is just 1/5 of a full moon diameter!
The last great conjunction this close occurred in the summer of 1623, just 14 years after Galileo made his telescope, but these planets were just 4 degrees from the Sun making the conjunction not visible from Earth. We have to go all the back to March 4, 1226 back to medieval times to witness a great conjunction that compares to the one in 2020. The next one will be in 2080. Wow!
Best viewing is 30 minutes to an hour after sunset up until planets set at 7:23 p.m. CST.
Make sure you have a clear view of the southwestern horizon near sunset, since the planets will be pretty low in the sky.
If you can get access to a medium-power backyard telescope, you’ll truly be amazed, since the two largest planets in our solar system will be in the same field of view! That’s a stunning celestial sight no one alive has ever seen.
Powerful binoculars will easily reveal Jupiter’s four huge moons spread in a straight line.
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