@stargazer

I’m glad you were able to see the McDonald Observatory’s live coverage, Stargazer.  Happy star and planet gazing! 🙂

Looks like everyone was having a good time, @fantasia.

My sister and I did get to see the conjunction tonight, which was nice. There were a lot more people at our chosen site, but it wasn't near as bad as I feared. The conjunction was good to see, though both of us thought it had a looked a bit more impressive Saturday - not entirely sure why.

I stepped out to look for it with the naked eye tonight... probably should have brought binoculars. I saw something that looked like a slightly large, orange star, but couldn't be sure if it was the conjunction. 

Glad you got to see it though! I'll have to look and see if I can find some good coverage of it.

I was able to see the conjunction last night with both the naked eye and with binoculars. It was great to see Jupiter and Saturn only 6 arc meters apart (1/10th of a degree), as I understand it. I could also make out three of Jupiter’s moons (Europa, Callisto, and Io).

All I could think about was the scene in Prince Caspian and Dr. Cornelius’s words:

A few days later his Tutor said, "To-night I am going to give you a lesson in Astronomy. At dead of night two noble planets, Tarva and Alambil, will pass within one degree of each other. Such a conjunction has not occurred for two hundred years, and your Highness will not live to see it again...The great lords of the upper sky know the steps of their dance too well for that. Look well upon them. Their meeting is fortunate and means some great good for the sad realm of Narnia. Tarva, the Lord of Victory, salutes Alambil, the Lady of Peace. They are just coming to their nearest.”

I also had Gustav Holst’s “Jupiter” in my head from his work, The Planets.  

Here is a picture that I got with my camera (it’s a Canon with a fairly good zoom but not a DSLR). The planet on the left is Jupiter and the one on the right is Saturn. This is a photo of the two planets but with more of a zoom. And here’s a picture of the moon last night, just for fun.  It was truly an amazing thing to see! 

I think just about 90% of my NarniaWeb FB friends were posting about Alambil and Tarva last night LOL.

Now that I'm on my computer instead of my phone, I thought I'd post a bit more about last night. We went up to my in-laws' farm because they've got a few places with clear shots to the southwest. We could see Jupiter and Saturn quite clearly with the naked eye, but the thing that was most exciting to me was that both of them fit into the view of our telescope. We could also see Jupiter's four biggest moons, which we've seen before, but it's always fun to see them again. I had seen another picture online where you could see Saturn's Titan, and I looked and looked for it but couldn't find that one. 

Sadly the piece of hardware that connects our good camera to our telescope is missing or broken, not sure which. So no good up close pictures of the planets. I TRIED to take one via my cellphone, but they're just blurry lights...didn't do it justice. So I'll just enjoy everybody else's pictures online this time around.  

Posted by: @wanderer

All I could think about was the scene in Prince Caspian and Dr. Cornelius’s words:

A few days later his Tutor said, "To-night I am going to give you a lesson in Astronomy. At dead of night two noble planets, Tarva and Alambil, will pass within one degree of each other. Such a conjunction has not occurred for two hundred years, and your Highness will not live to see it again...The great lords of the upper sky know the steps of their dance too well for that. Look well upon them. Their meeting is fortunate and means some great good for the sad realm of Narnia. Tarva, the Lord of Victory, salutes Alambil, the Lady of Peace. They are just coming to their nearest.”

I was just planning to quote that myself!! I didn't get to see the conjunction, as it wasn't good weather here and I needed to get to bed anyway (dead tired after working extra hours and having to get up for a morning shift the next day), but I love your photos, Wanderer! Thanks for sharing.

I don't believe in astrology myself (not on this planet, anyway... Narnia would be a different matter ), but here's hoping for "some great good" for our own world in the year to come!

@Courtenay:I don't believe in astrology myself (not on this planet, anyway... Narnia would be a different matter ), but here's hoping for "some great good" for our own world in the year to come!

Quite so, we could really do with a worldwide nice year with "some great good" for everyone. Both Rachel and I also remembered the Tarva & Alambil extract in Prince Caspian. Meanwhile, I wish you a Merry Christmas despite all that is happening. Down Under we are back in lockdown in Sydney, mainly just the Northern Suburbs, due to one returning traveller testing positive & the other states all sending Sydney, itself & its people to the doghouse.  

@Stargazer: wagga, 1563 is significant because the planets were slightly farther apart than they are right now (this is the closest since then). 1226 is mentioned because they were even closer then.

Thank you for answer to my post. What you wrote really explains a good deal, especially about the closeness of the planets, in 1563. Yes, we did see the conjunction, finally, last night. The rain had cleared up though there was still some cloud about. I thought that Jupiter & Saturn would be close to the Sun which was setting, reaching the ridge of the Blue Mountains by 8.00 pm AEST (Australian Eastern Summer Time), but which had only set properly up to three quarters of an hour later. The Sun seemed larger than usual and really bright & dazzling, the very opposite of last year's red Charn-like Sun. Once it became dark, we saw clearly, due west, with our naked eyes, firstly Jupiter, with Saturn as a smaller dot beneath it, seemingly about a few centimeters away, relatively speaking. Rachel set up her telescope, to get the best view, whilst for the most part I remained satisfied with the binoculars, which also gave a better view. 

Neighbours across the road came to see what we were doing, (whilst observing social distancing). They had a peep through the telescope which allowed us to see that Saturn's rings were at an angle, & a square blurred area around Jupiter, where its  4 Galilean moons might be, with one at each corner. As both sunk to the West, the two planets appeared to move closer together. It was all over by 10 pm, but we did manage a good look, despite it being our Summer Solstice, & someone letting off fireworks for a celebration. 

Given we were facing West, I thought it was uncommonly like what I'd imagine the Christmas Star might have looked like for the Magi, following the Star from modern Iran or Iraq, to Bethlehem, especially as lack of air pollution would have made them seem brighter.

Nice pictures, @wanderer! You can definitely see Saturn's oval shape compared to Jupiter.

@fantasia, I enjoyed reading your story. What did the kids think of the conjunction?

@wagga, I liked reading your descriptions. It was almost like being there, not to mention the difference in perspective being Down Under made (Saturn was above Jupiter as seen from the Northern Hemisphere).

Our persistent overcast suddenly broke this evening, about half an hour before sunset, so around 5.10 pm local time I stepped outside. Twilight was still strong but the planets were already getting low (about 13 degrees high). Saturn was surprisingly easy to see, about 0.2 degrees to the right of brighter Jupiter. We also used 10x50 binoculars but didn't see any Galilean satellites (probably due to twilight). It's a good thing we looked when we did; it was nearly overcast again by 5.40.

I always enjoy reading through this thread!

It has been too long since we had clear skies at night, but last evening that changed. Cold and clear above, there was cloud lower in the SW, and I thought we would miss seeing Jupiter and Saturn, but then, over time, the cloud mass moved enough for us to view the two giants. Saturn was on Jupiter's lower right and was not visible until a fair bit after Jupiter came into view, being lower and not as bright. What a sight! Then on our walk, we had the treat of seeing huge Orion rise in the east. Aldebaran was bright and ruddy between Orion and the Pleiades. Mars was high in the sky, a familiar 'skymark'. The Summer Triangle was beginning to set in the west, with Cygnus the Swan plainly visible, with the Northern Cross inset so beautifully. What a joy to see that sparkling night sky again after nearly two weeks of cloudy nights.

I see from Sky & Telescope that by January 9, Mercury will join Jupiter and Saturn in the lower south-western sky shortly after sunset. Oooohh, for a clear night again around then! https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/sky-tour-podcast-january-2021/

I'm glad you got to see them, Jo! I ended 2020 with a glimpse of them as they sank into the twilight; binoculars were needed for Saturn due to background light (it became cloudy again before it was dark enough to see it without aid).

The earth is at perihelion (closest to the sun in its orbit) today (officially at 1351 GMT/0751 in my time zone).

Nice, stargazer! A good way to end 2020.

I would love for the skies to be clear tomorrow night, as Jupiter, Saturn, and Mercury are in conjunction low in the WSW about a half hour after sunset. Binoculars will really help! There is a chance we will see them here, as the skies could have "a few clouds", so it depends where they are. Really hoping for a glimpse, at least, of these three planets, if not tomorrow night, then one of the following nights, but it will become trickier as the week progresses. Here is some info from Sky & Telescope: https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/observing-news/this-weeks-sky-at-a-glance-january-8-16-2/.   Scroll to January 9.  

Sadly, clouds moved in this afternoon, so there was no viewing of the three planet conjunction here.   Did anyone else see this? I have to add, though, that while I was really wanting to see the conjunction, the colourful sunset was a very pretty sight to behold.  

Perhaps your clouds will clear in the next few days, Jo. Mercury is on the rise but Saturn especially is getting harder to see as it approaches conjunction (behind the sun) January 23.

I had been hoping to view this, but clouds (along with warmer-than-usual weather and some occasionally dense fog) have been the rule since last Tuesday and it may be the end of next week before this pattern breaks. So observing is at a premium but at least the bitter cold weather is not here yet.

It has been cloudy here the past week or so, and Jupiter and Saturn will have disappeared into the twilight by the time the sky clears. Still hoping to catch Mercury though.

Another planetary conjunction comes this week: Mars passes about 1.5 degrees northwest of dim Uranus on Wednesday the 20th (but the pair will be within 2 degrees of each other most of the week). Binoculars should show the dim gas giant to the lower left of Mars, and if your sky is very dark (and you have good vision), you may be able to see Uranus with the unaided eye (it's at magnitude 5.7, just brighter than the usual 6.0 cutoff noted for visual observing).

S&T notes that Uranus will be the only bright thing in that area when seen in binoculars, except for an even dimmer star (magnitude 6.9) 0.5 degrees to the left of Uranus. Good luck!

I am hoping to catch Mercury yet too, although the forecast is clouds, clouds, and more clouds (with snow). So, alas, my chances of spotting Uranus near Mercury are quite diminished. Thanks for that info, though, stargazer, for if there is any hope of clearing, I will be out there!

January has been extremely cloudy for us ('though a fair bit milder than our normal Januarys), with very few open breaks, either day or night, so everything will have shifted in the night sky by the time things clear here. And it will take a bit to get used to the current positions of the stars and planets.