Not every night has a nice blend, and things like this happen once in a lifetime.
Jupiter and Saturn will be arranged in the night sky next week, in which astronomers say a great combination – this year some people call the “Christmas star” – such an event in almost 400 years.
When viewed with the naked eye, the two planets may appear as bright points of light, a view some StarGrassers describe as an extended star or a double planet. The telescope should be enough to show the difference between the two, while the telescope will reveal Saturn’s rings, Jupiter’s stripes and the moons of both planets all from the same point of view.
The astronomical event will occur on Monday, December 21, the first day of winter. Jim Todd, OMSI’s director of astronomy education, said people in the Portland area would want to go out after sunset at 4:30 p.m., when Jupiter and Saturn would be low in the sky.
The planets will quickly descend below the horizon, Todd said, so a good view of the southwest horizon is essential, and people will need to look to the sky in a timely manner to catch it.
Like all astronomical events of autumn and winter, the cloud cover will determine if we in the Pacific Northwest will actually get a view. The National Weather Service is currently forecasting clouds and the possibility of rain on Monday in the Portland area.
Winter solstice is a spiritually important time for the great union, as it is close to Christmas. The biblical story of Jesus’ birth refers to the arrangement of some planets in the context of the constellation Bethlehem as the “Christmas star.” Although the two planets may appear as a single point of light, they will in fact be different.
When the great connections of Jupiter and Saturn occur once in about 20 years, it is extremely rare to get this good view. This year’s Great Alliance will be the closest since 1623 and the closest observation since 1226. The next great alliance is expected to take place in 2080.
The arrangement of most planets is called conjunctions, but astronomers point to the alignment of Jupiter and Saturn as the two largest planets in our solar system – a “great union”. Todd said that while the two planets would be only .1 degrees apart in our sky, they would in fact be 455,762,323 miles apart, Todd said.
From 1620 to 2020 the greatest junction of Jupiter and Saturn will be closest.
– Jamie Hale; [email protected]; 503-294-4077; Hallejamsby
