The (not so?) Great Conjunction

by Tom Shafer

December 21, 2020

So, the Great Conjunction is upon us (in the early evening of December 21, 2020, the longest night of the year), and I have been looking forward to it.  For the uninitiated, the Great Conjunction is an astronomical event where the planets Jupiter and Saturn appear so close together that they in fact look like one heavenly body – and the brightest one in the sky save the moon. This happens somewhat frequently, about every twenty years or so, but it has been 800 years since the two have been this close (from our perspective anyway).  

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In reality, Jupiter and Saturn have been travelling together all year.  Those of you who spent much of your time in the outdoors, like I did, may have seen giant Jupiter and his ringed father moving across the southern sky, literally from dusk to dawn, celebrating their own little road show.  So now, on the 21^st, they will finally come together, at least in a social distancing way.  They are, after all, actually 450 million miles apart, while we are 400 million miles from Jupiter and almost 800 million miles from Saturn. 

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Now, some media outlets are calling this the coming of the Christmas Star, or more correctly the Star of Bethlehem – and perhaps it is.  Because we don’t know the exact date of the birth of Jesus Christ, some astronomers have posited his birth year might have been 7 B.C. because three Great Conjunctions occurred then, one in late spring (which may have been the “star” that prompted the Magi to search for the son of God), one in middle fall (which may have confirmed their quest), and the last one in early December (which may have coincided with their arrival in Judea, compelling them to continue on to Bethlehem).  Whether this is the timeline or not doesn’t really matter because we will never know for sure.  But it does bring a splash of wonder to the birth story.  And at the finish of a challenging 2020, all of us can use a splash of wonder. 

So last evening, December 20^th, I stepped outside to witness the Good Conjunction, as in the two planets are pretty close together but not quite 1° tight.  I set up my Celestron 114 AZ-SR telescope, then attached my trusty Nikon CoolPix L120 camera to the tallest tripod I own to view and capture this celestial event.  I had been trying to do this for about three weeks, but unfortunately, the weather just hasn’t been cooperative.  With our typical winter upon us, we have experienced many, many overcast days, and even on those days where the sun has made an appearance, it was a brief one, and clouds overspread the sky by early evening, obscuring the heavens and the approaching Conjunction.

And, the forecast for the 21^st is not a hopeful one, so my best shots for catching the event were the 20^th and potentially the 22^nd – both sides of GC.  One forecast for the 21^st suggests a possibility of scattered cloud cover, but that was from a meteorologist who is also an amateur astronomer – apparently a hopeful one.  No other weather forecast is making that prediction.  I sure hope he’s right.

So these are the images I collected last evening, and I’m sure I will add a couple of more from December 22^nd if that forecast holds.  But what I really hope is that I catch a break tonight, that the heavens part just long enough for me to see the Great Conjunction with my own eyes.  If not, I will have to tap into the Google machine to quench my celestial thirst – which of course isn’t quite the same.  Thankfully, Mother Nature never completely fails to supply spiritual – and heavenly – sustenance; during the first week of January, she will bring us the Quadrantids meteor shower (peak night January 2^nd into the 3^rd, perhaps as many as twenty-five an hour!), a lovely 2021 New Year’s present. 

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Epilogue: Well, unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate on December 21^st. Just before dusk, clouds started breaking up a little, showering some hope on being able to see the Great Conjunction. At 6 p.m., I caught a faint glimpse of the two planets projecting one point of light, but in the time I have just taken to describe the moment, they were gone. I checked the skies several times over the next hour or so, but the clouds continued to thicken, and by then, the two planets had set over the horizon. On the 22^nd, I took just one picture of the Aftermath Conjunction (below) – which was nice – but it just wasn’t the same as witnessing 1° of separation. Oh well, I guess now I will channel my celestial excitement on the Quadrantids meteor shower – unless Mother Nature opts to rain or snow or cloud that parade of meteors!

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