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The moon shines like the star of Bethlehem on a church steeple.
Start pleading with the weather gods to provide clear skies Monday night.
The celestial event that has been dubbed the “star of Bethlehem” is scheduled for December 21.
The Witness previously wrote that Dr. Daniel Cunnama, scientific astronomer at the South African Astronomical Observatory, confirmed that the spectacular conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn will be visible in the night skies of South Africa.
“You can look west just after sunset and you will see them …” Cunnama said.
NASA has kept the public updated on what they have called the ‘Christmas star’ phenomenon.
So what makes this year’s show so rare? It has been almost 400 years since the planets passed so close to each other in the sky, and almost 800 years since the alignment of Saturn and Jupiter occurred at night, as it will happen in 2020, allowing almost everyone around the world to be witnesses to this ‘great conjunction’. “
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They provided a story of how in 1610, the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei pointed his telescope at the night sky, discovering the four moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.
NASA said that later that year, Galileo also discovered a strange oval surrounding Saturn, which subsequent observations determined to be its rings.
“These discoveries changed the way people understood the confines of our solar system.
“Thirteen years later, in 1623, the two giant planets of the solar system, Jupiter and Saturn, traveled together through the sky. Jupiter caught up with and passed Saturn, in an astronomical event known as the ‘Great Conjunction.’
“You can imagine the solar system as a race track, with each of the planets as a corridor in its own lane and the Earth toward the center of the stadium,” said Henry Throop, an astronomer with the Division of Planetary Sciences at HQ NASA in Washington. . “From our point of view, we will be able to see Jupiter in the inner lane, closing in on Saturn all month and finally overtaking it on December 21.”
“On the 21st, they will appear so close that an outstretched little finger will easily cover both planets in the sky. The planets will be easy to see with the naked eye looking to the southwest just after sunset. “
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NASA said the planets appear to regularly intersect with each other in the solar system, with the positions of Jupiter and Saturn aligned in the sky about once every 20 years.
“So what makes this year’s show so weird? It’s been almost 400 years since the planets this close to each other in the sky, and nearly 800 years since the alignment of Saturn and Jupiter occurred at night, as it will be by 2020, allowing almost everyone around the world to witness this ‘great conjunction.’ If the weather is clear, of course.
NASA said the closest alignment will appear with only one tenth of a degree and will last a few days.
“On the 21st, they will appear so close that an outstretched little finger will easily cover both planets in the sky. The planets will be easy to see with the naked eye looking to the southwest just after sunset.
“From our point of view on Earth, the gas giants will appear very close together, but they will remain hundreds of millions of miles apart in space.”
And what makes this even more interesting to many is that it coincidentally occurs on the same day as the southern hemisphere summer solstice and the northern hemisphere winter solstice.
“Conjunctions like this could occur on any day of the year, depending on where the planets are in their orbits,” Throop said. “The date of the conjunction is determined by the positions of Jupiter, Saturn and the Earth on their paths around the Sun, while the date of the solstice is determined by the tilt of the Earth’s axis.
For those who want to see this phenomenon for themselves, NASA offers these tips:
- Find a place with a clear view of the sky, such as a field or park. Jupiter and Saturn are bright, so they can be seen even from most cities.
- An hour after sunset, look up at the southwestern sky. Jupiter will look like a bright star and will be easily visible. Saturn will be slightly weaker and appear slightly above and to the left of Jupiter until December 21, when Jupiter will overtake it and they will change positions in the sky.
- The planets can be seen with the naked eye, but if you have binoculars or a small telescope, you may be able to see the four large moons of Jupiter orbiting the giant planet.
The next great conjunction will occur on March 15, 2080.
