The Great Conjunction

December 21, 2020 10:37 AM

Jupiter and Saturn will be doing a planetary dance tonight, resulting in The Great Conjunction. This will be the closest they have appeared in 400 years. It has also been nicknamed the "Christmas Star".

There will be webcasts. Many people have been capturing photos as the planets move closer together over the past week. Forbes lists other night sky events to watch out for as the year ends.

posted by toastyk (43 comments total)

I got a pretty good photo the other night but it's cloudy here tonight so I don't think I'll be seeing them any closer than they were on the 18th.
posted by bondcliff at 10:41 AM on December 21, 2020 [10 favorites]

Like everyone else in the country I have been waiting for a USPS package to circuitously route itself from my parents to me for the last few weeks, tracking updates be damned.

My mom texted this morning re. the conjunction saying "Your father and I will be taking the telescope out to Fort Pulaski tonight."

She then followed up with "I'll let you know if we see your package while we're there."

Nestled down where I am in the land of many buildings and light pollution I probably won't be able to see squat, but good luck to everyone going out planet spotting tonight! And if you see my mail pls let me know.
posted by phunniemee at 10:48 AM on December 21, 2020 [14 favorites]

My wife's birthday is today and she had told me that she wanted either a telescope of microscope. I ended up getting a microscope because that's something she can use whenever she wants while a telescope would involve driving for a couple of hours to escape the city and its light pollution. So it was more than a bit worrying for me once I found out about this once-in-400-year astronomical event that was happening on her actual birthday - like if that isn't a sign to get her a telescope I don't know what is. But thankfully the weather has come through for me as it's been cloudy the last few days and will remain so until next week so if I had got her the telescope we wouldn't be able to see the thing anyway which is worse than not having a telescope to begin with.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:02 AM on December 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

I'm expecting to see something more like this.
posted by JackFlash at 11:16 AM on December 21, 2020 [15 favorites]

Great, but it's pretty much permanently cloudy this time of year where I live. If Jupiter and Saturn wanted to have their conjunction witnessed by Southern Ontario, they should have scheduled it for late April.
posted by tallmiddleagedgeek at 11:16 AM on December 21, 2020 [7 favorites]

Ah, won't get to see it here tonight as we're all socked in with rain and fog and fog-rain, but it's clearing tomorrow and Wednesday, so I'm hoping for a peek!

Happy solstice, y'all. Let the light return.
posted by missmobtown at 11:50 AM on December 21, 2020

20x telescope
Coco, warm jacket, gorilla glue and a nice coffee. Cloudy here, not to hopeful. My deck is on second story so at least l can duck in for a cuppa til I can see the loot from ole Neptune.
posted by clavdivs at 12:09 PM on December 21, 2020

saw them superclose last night with little lurk -- with whom i've been watching them approach since summer -- and binoculars. hopefully will have clear skies tonight (but it looks like rain). there is just the slightest time, here, after sundown before they chase the sun past the horizon, so, if you hail from eastern US, strike in the first hour after sundown and look low. yes: joyous solstice.
posted by 20 year lurk at 12:10 PM on December 21, 2020

... or, on consideration, maybe just if you hail from earth.
posted by 20 year lurk at 12:16 PM on December 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

Oh great, given the way this year is going, some jerk iss probably going to open a gate to the Black Lodge
posted by Saxon Kane at 12:20 PM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Augra explains: End. Begin. All the same.

It's totally cloudy here today, so will likely be tuning in to one of the webcasts.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:29 PM on December 21, 2020 [4 favorites]

I hope this means the Skeksis will leave our planet.
posted by Pallas Athena at 12:37 PM on December 21, 2020 [15 favorites]

especially after the last few years, I truly hate living in Florida... but after rain last night, tonight the skies will be clear, and I'm a 10-minute drive from being able to watch them drop right down into the Gulf of Mexico!
posted by martin q blank at 12:37 PM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Came here for the Augra explanation, was not disappointed. Carry on!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:47 PM on December 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

I hope this means the Skeksis will leave our planet.

If I remember the original movie correctly, the best we can hope for is that they merge with the opposition into a new, taller, glowing centrist party.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 12:59 PM on December 21, 2020 [7 favorites]

As usual, whenever there's some awesome sky/space thing happening, all the clouds in the world park themselves over Indiana.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:13 PM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Here's another virtual telescope viewing from Chabot Observatory. For those of you stuck in the clouds and light pollution.
posted by gingerbeer at 1:30 PM on December 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

From Richard Harvey's Astrological Discourse upon the Great and Notable Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter (1583), here's a brief foretaste of what to expect:

Great fear and dread shall come suddenly vpon the people, a great sterility and barrenness of the earth shall ensue, manifold submersions, shipwrecks, exustions, burnings, and such other watery and fiery calamities will follow: finally, a very great and sore mortality, with many general contagions, and pestilent diseases, both among men and beasts.

Meanwhile, MeFi's own fugitive ink has some historical reflections on Sir Christopher Heydon and the Great Conjunction of 1603.
posted by verstegan at 1:36 PM on December 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

Because 2020 it's been cloudy here at night for a week and we're getting 15-25 cms of snow in the next 24 hours so no conjunction photos for me. And while my foreground wouldn't be monument valley or something it's pissing me off in a way little has for months. I'd honestly thought that sort of outrage had completely burned out of my psyche but nope.
posted by Mitheral at 1:51 PM on December 21, 2020

Wow, there was a break in the clouds and I managed to get out and see them and snap a photo. They were just above the tree tops so I really got lucky here.
posted by bondcliff at 2:01 PM on December 21, 2020

I'm expecting to see something more like this.

Awww, adorbs.
posted by Horkus at 2:15 PM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Thanks so much for posting this thread. I was able go outside with my daughter and have a look -- remarkably, skies are clear here in s.e. ala tonight. So cool to witness an event that only comes around every four centuries! If I hadn't seen this post, we would have missed it.
posted by TwoToneRow at 3:41 PM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Dragged the family out to look through the binoculars and it was worth it.
posted by ob1quixote at 3:43 PM on December 21, 2020

I have been looking forward to this for months.

Of course it is cloudy tonight.

At least I saw them a couple days ago as the approached.
posted by fimbulvetr at 3:51 PM on December 21, 2020

I saw it while out by the solstice fire, two discs and maybe a hint of rings in 10x50 binoculars.

And so, seemingly at the same time, did several other family members who I'd usually be celebrating with. What a great shared 2020 experience.
posted by joeyh at 4:05 PM on December 21, 2020

Saw them! We have a little 3” reflector, and had both planets in the field on both the little and big eyepieces. Saw a hint of rings on Saturn and saw some moons of Jupiter, through the trees.

Also Mars is out tonight and there’s a nice half moon.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 4:09 PM on December 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

Cloudy every night for the last week, and cloudy every night for the next week. On top of that, we have hills to the west, so there's really no chance for me to see it. I fired up one of the webcams, but it's just not the same.
posted by dirigibleman at 4:15 PM on December 21, 2020

I got one glimpse quite a few days ago, when they were still about an inch and a half apart when I measured with my fingers in front of my face, headcrusher style. My ex, who lives fairly close by and who I go on walks with, met up with me (after I blindly stumbled in the dark to our meeting point because I have never found a way to get my glasses to not fog up and the neighborhood seemed to be full of people standing on sidewalks, taking advantage of a break in the weather, and I couldn't see a fucking thing) to see it and we were both there like a couple of doofs, our star chart apps pointed out over Puget Sound, trying to find them, until we had to give up and walk back toward my house. And as we were standing there talking, I looked up and said, "Oh, hey, is that them?" Because we are doofs. So even with the streetlight pollution fest that is my yard (fucking LED streetlights in both my front and back yard corners), we got a nice few minutes of watching them, and admiring Mars as well.

It was pretty special, but every night since then has been a wall of goddamn clouds, and today it is literally sheeting rain, we've had two inches today and it's not stopping. I'm heartsick and angry, hence the foul language. I've desperately wanted to watch them converge; I'll be long gone when it happens again. Fucking Seattle.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 4:17 PM on December 21, 2020

I saw them yesterday, and maybe, if you looked at them through the corner of your eye, you could tell there were two points of light in the sky, but if I hadn't taken a photo with a reasonable amount of zoom I would have wondered if I was looking at the right thing. They're not hard to see in a clear sky, but binoculars or a telescope will help tell you what you're looking at.

If you go looking, follow the line from the sunset to the moon and it's sort of a quarter of the way up. More of a giveaway, it's brighter than the stars and so it's the first one to appear through the dusk.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 4:25 PM on December 21, 2020

Boy I’m glad we got the scope out last night because it started clouding over a few hours ago. They were both clearly visible in the eyepiece, even if they weren’t quite as close as they were going to get.

They’re relatively far away though, & I wish this conjunction would have happened when we were all on the same side of the sun. They were relatively low in the sky, which means lots of atmosphere.
posted by Devils Rancher at 4:33 PM on December 21, 2020

Whatever - it's hardly a reunion. Those planets don't even ride on the same tour bus anymore.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 4:58 PM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Props to the Griffith Observatory livestream for having a super-chill soundtrack.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:21 PM on December 21, 2020

"Fucking Seattle"

Good for you!! I got to see something halfway good yesterday with binoculars briefly & nothing today (clouds) and fucking South Bend!

We'll never see what the lucky folks and the people with large telescopes do, but we tried and are awesome. That's what I think -- we can only pay attention and look up.
posted by lathrop at 8:53 PM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

This would make a great WhatIf blog post. What would happen if Jupiter and Saturn actually merged. Possible ignition of a second sun. But also lots of exciting disruptions of all sorts of more or less important orbits. And, a common feature of WhatIfs, lots of destruction.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 9:05 PM on December 21, 2020

I couldn't remember where my binoculars were, so naked eye they looked like one dot. But when I took a nightsight picture they were very clear and distinct (and Saturn even looked a little oblong, possibly the rings?)
posted by tavella at 9:42 PM on December 21, 2020

Against all probability they were viewable here in Ketchikan, Alaska, one of the rainiest cities in the USA. Clear skies this time of year are not quite as rare as the conjunction itself but still pretty remarkable.

My excellent neighbor had set up his telescope on the small stone patio up the hill from my house and we shared about 10 - 15 minutes' worth of hands-free, socially-distanced viewing before clouds started moving in.
posted by Nerd of the North at 9:50 PM on December 21, 2020

I hope this means the Skeksis will leave our planet.

It’s actually spelled ‘Shkreli’ and no he is still here
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:26 PM on December 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

When is the next great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn visible from Mars?
posted by fairmettle at 11:05 PM on December 21, 2020

I'd been looking forward to this but when the clouds broke here at 60 deg N the pair were below the horizon...
posted by St. Oops at 11:08 PM on December 21, 2020

Some beautiful images at the Guardian. There was too much light pollution for where I am at the moment but I watched the University of Exeter's livestream.
posted by ellieBOA at 6:35 AM on December 22, 2020

I made a little gif.
posted by hydrophonic at 7:39 AM on December 22, 2020 [7 favorites]

Misplaced!
posted by tavella at 10:22 PM on December 22, 2020

A Rare Photograph Captures ISS Moving Between Jupiter and Saturn During the Great Conjunction [Colossal]
posted by ellieBOA at 7:47 AM on December 23, 2020 [2 favorites]