Over the next several nights, as darkness falls, use the waxing crescent moon to locate Jupiter and Saturn, now headed for their once-in-20-years great conjunction on the Dec. 21 solstice.
In the Tampa Bay area, look west just after sunset tonight. The trio will be found together as they all set in the western sky until they start to set, one-by-one, from about 8:30 p.m. until about 9:30 p.m.
Jupiter will be closer to the moon. It is the brighter of these two worlds, outshining Saturn by 12 times. However, Saturn is still very bright, shining as brightly and can’t be missed.
In our November 2020 sky, Jupiter and Saturn have been near each other every night. The closeness of the two is exceedingly noticeable.
This upcoming Jupiter-Saturn conjunction will be the closest Jupiter-Saturn conjunction since July 16, 1623. A conjunction occurs when any two astronomical objects (such as moons, planets, and stars) appear to be close together in the sky, as observed from Earth.
On the December conjunction, these two worlds will be within 1/10 degree of one another on Dec. 21, 2020. That’s just 1/5 of a full moon diameter.
A similarly close conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn won’t happen again until March 15, 2080!
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