Winter Solsace

December 21, marks the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, and in 2020 the longest night of the year and the shortest day and also when the sun is at its lowest daily extreme elevation, is also going to be a witness to “ Great Conjunction “ an incredible astronomic event, the rare aligning of the double planet  Jupiter and Saturn sighting can be viewed from anywhere from the globe.  Jupiter and Saturn have not aligned like this in the sky since 1226, as they will appear to sit just 0.1 degrees apart or one-fifth of the width of the Moon, although they will still be 450 million miles from each other.

With a telescope, you will be able to get a closer look even taking in some of Jupiter’s Moons or Saturn’s rings.

Henry Throop from NASA’s Planetary Science Division said “ You can imagine the solar system to be a racetrack, with each of the planets as a runner in their own lane and the Earth toward the centre of the stadium.”

On this day Jupiter which is closer to Earth than Saturn and will appear to be the brighter planet, Saturn is about twice as far away.