When the Stars (and planets!) Align
Posted on December 18, 2020
Left image credits: NASA/ Bill Ingalls
Say what you will about 2020, but it has been a pretty decent year for stargazers, featuring a variety of meteor showers, comets and other interesting astronomical events. And to close out the year, there’s one more cool once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon coming our way as two planets, Jupiter and Saturn, will appear very close together in the sky… just a tenth of a degree apart! The last time such a close conjunction of these planets was observable was in 1226.
The two planets have been moving closer and closer together for weeks now, but they will appear at their closest on December 21. Of course, while they appear to be really close from here on Earth, in space they are actually hundreds of millions of miles apart. The event's proximity to the holidays has earned it the nickname "The Christmas Star" (the fact that it's happening on the Winter Solstice is just a coincidence).
You'll be able to see the conjunction with the naked eye on a clear night, since both planets are typically quite bright. Find an unobstructed view of the lower southwestern sky, and look close to the horizon immediately after sunset. Jupiter (which will look like a bright star and be very visible) and Saturn (slightly fainter, above and to the left of Jupiter) will likely start to really shine around 6:00 or 6:15 p.m. But don't dilly-dally! Both planets will sink behind the horizon shortly thereafter.
Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Read more about this conjunction at friend of COL Chuck Bueter's great Nightwise blog!
