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Monday night can be a special experience for anyone gazing at the clear sky after dark: Jupiter and Saturn will be so close together that their partner will shine as practically a single bright star near the southwest horizon. The view, whether with the naked eye or through binoculars, will be extraordinary, which is why it is worth looking now, because we will have to wait until 2080 for a similar close coexistence.
The two planets have been hand in hand in the sky for months. From Hungary, Jupiter (and the globe is Saturn) was on the right side of the couple, and after the reunion on December 21 (the so-called conjunction), the order will change. Their proximity can occur because they are viewed in roughly the same direction from Earth, but since they travel at different speeds in their own orbits, this alignment is only temporary.
By the way, the almost identical line of sight alone does not reveal anything about the actual distance between the two planets, since their position in the sky is independent of their distance from us. So even though Jupiter and Saturn are relatively close actually on December 21, only 883 million km (about 6 astronomical units), this is not the same as the smallest possible distance between the two planets (about 4.6 CSE).
In a two-dimensional sky, it is a good idea to specify the apparent size of each object or the distances between them, not in terms of lengths, but in terms of angles. The size of the nail in the distance of our extended hand is approx. 1 degree; half of that, or 30 arc minutes, is the diameter of the full moon. This is almost constant, even if the lunar disk appears larger near the horizon, so it is worth comparing the Jupiter-Saturn alignment with this. The two planets started from 7.5 degrees (15 lunar diameters) three months ago, even though they appeared to be close at the time at the time of their sunrise in the sky. This distance has fallen below 1 degree during the second week of December, and will be only 0.1 degrees during the December 21 meeting, that is, one-fifth the size of a full moon (or one-tenth! of a finger in our outstretched hand …)!
In practice, this means that in the first blick, the light from Jupiter and Saturn will merge for our eyes, as if a single bright star were shining in the southwestern sky. Unfortunately, the timing will not be perfect, as darkness now reaches the two planets near the horizon, so we have a relatively short time before the pair of planets settles down. In Budapest, the sun will set at 3:56 p.m. on December 21, and the planets will soon appear around twilight at dusk, then disappear at 6:31 p.m. on the western horizon. However, if someone misses the December 21 meeting, don’t despair, 2-3 days later (or sooner) you may be almost in the same view.
Whoever gets the chance, be sure to take a look at conviviality with binoculars, even medium-sized binoculars! With the correct settings (large enough field of view and magnification), you can not only see the disk of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn at the same time, but you can also see up to five moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, and Titan ).
It’s no exaggeration to say that coexistence watchers can be part of a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but at least it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Jupiter orbits the Sun with a period of 11.86 years, while the more distant Saturn makes a circle (more precisely, an ellipse) at 29.46 years, which means that the two planets resonate with each other at a resonance of 5 : 2. All this means that every almost 59 years, the two planets will keep the same orbit in their own orbit, which means that they will be practically next to each other when viewed from a sufficient distance (from our point of view). However, it is not legal for such a close coexistence to always occur. For one thing, the resonance is not perfect, and the current position of our own planet also matters in view of the Jupiter-Saturn coexistence, so it is not always possible to observe an extremely close coexistence. On March 15, 2080, the two planets will appear at exactly the same distance as this year, but we will have to wait until the 25th century for the next close coexistence. glow of the planet. However, the planets do not orbit exactly in the same plane and the planetary discs appear to be extremely small. It is estimated that a partial overlap could occur at 7000, but this is already a temporary course in which it is necessary to add to the forecasts that there is a “good possibility”.
Due to the extremely bright and unique combination, as well as the time around Christmas, most of the media do not miss out on comparing the phenomenon to the Star of Bethlehem. Well, the star that shines in the east, followed by the three biblical kings, was probably not the result of the coexistence between Jupiter and Saturn (it “only” happened in AD 7 and it was not very bright), but the planets were not. can be discarded. different pairing. On the one hand, the Venus-Jupiter occults result in a temporary “star” brighter than it currently is; on the other hand, there were two of them around the beginning of our time. Me first. s. On June 17, Jupiter and Venus were separated by only 1.4 arc seconds, although this was observed in a western direction; then I. s. On August 3, the two brightest planets, now in the eastern sky, shone together.
According to the weather forecast for December 19, cloudy and cloudy weather is expected in Hungary early in the week. Perhaps on the highest mountain peaks, it will be worth trying to get past the fog line on Monday afternoon, if our mountains really stick out. On Sunday night, December 20, the interactive live online event of the Svábhegy Observatory awaits those interested, who will be taken by Áron Keve Kiss, the host of the evening, for a trip in time of 2000 years as well as curiosities astronomical.
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