And they're currently visible in our night sky, inching ever closer to one another. Jupiter-Saturn Great Conjunction 2020: A pairing between any pair of planets is a conjunction. Rising Woman Special Astrology Report: Jupiter Saturn Conjunction December 21, 2020 at 10:21am PST @ 0° of Aquarius Theme: The Great Awakening On December 21st, 2020 the great benefic, Jupiter and the great malefic, Saturn will conjunct at 0° of Aquarius. Jupiter and Saturn haven’t been visibly this close since the Middle Ages: How to watch. Photograph: Jon G Fuller/VW Pics/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock (In sidereal astrology this event occurs in the sign of Capricorn.) During January 2021, however, the two planets will become lost in the glare of the Sun. The Earth takes one year to complete one orbit of the Sun, but Jupiter takes 12 years, and Saturn takes 30 years. Dimmer Saturn is immediately to the Giant Planet’s upper right. How to watch the 2020 conjunction on Dec. 21. The December 21, 2020 conjunction was the closest great conjunction since July 16, 1623. This is a […] Between 0 and 3000 CE, or Common Era, only seven conjunction were or will be closer than this one -- and two of those were too close to the sun to be seen without a telescope, according to Hartigan. The last time that the two planets were easily observable when separated by less than 0.1 degrees was almost 800 years ago, during the great conjunction of 1226. A few days before December 21, a thin Crescent Moon passed close to Jupiter and Saturn in the sky. For Aries, the conjunction will take place in the 10 th house, the house of Career and Profession. "Alignments between these two planets are rather rare, occurring once every 20 years or so, but this conjunction is exceptionally rare because of how close the planets will appear to one another," said Rice University astronomer and professor of physics and astronomy Patrick Hartigan, "You'd have to go all the way back to just before dawn on March 4, 1226, to see a closer alignment between these objects visible in the night sky.". If you're in New York or London, or along those latitudes, try to spot the conjunction right after sunset. Find out more in Graham's Sky & Telescope article, The 400-Year Rhythm of Great Conjunctions, co-authored with timeanddate.com CEO, Steffen Thorsen. "On the evening of closest approach on Dec(ember) 21 they will look like a double planet, separated by only 1/5th the diameter of the full Moon," Hartigan said. "Viewing that would be manageable if the weather cooperates and you have an unobstructed view to the southwest.". The two planets are drawing closer to … By now you may have heard the buzz about Jupiter and Saturn aligning on the winter solstice, December 21, 2020. ... Dec 21, 2020 at 11:57 PM . Jupiter and Saturn form their next conjunction on December 21 of 2020 in the first degree of Aquarius, and so most of 2020 took place during the end of their cycle. Celebrate the end of the year with the closest conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn for nearly 400 years and the annual Geminids meteor shower. Scroll down to see telescope footage! Convert to your time zone. The 2012 Venus transit was the last chance to see this phenomenon for over 100 years. Jupiter and Saturn align at 00°29′ Aquarius on December 21, 2020. Binoculars or a telescope may help you distinguish the planets. The above figures are round numbers. The Jupiter-Saturn conjunction ends the previous 200 year Earth cycle that brought us banknotes, capitalism, corporations, fossil fuels, and the industrial world. A great conjunction is a conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn, when the two planets appear closest together in the sky.Great conjunctions occur approximately every 20 years when Jupiter "overtakes" Saturn in its orbit.They are named "great" for being by far the rarest of the conjunctions between naked-eye planets (i.e. Winter Solstice December 21. If you're in the Southern Hemisphere, look toward the west. In fact, the 2020 great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn is exceptionally close. Mercury transits happen more often, the next one in 2032. The two largest planets in our solar system, Jupiter and Saturn, are coming closer together than they have been since the Middle Ages. This event, which astrologers call The Great Conjunction… Credit: Gary Hershorn / Getty Images “What is most rare is a close conjunction that occurs in our night-time sky,” said Vanderbilt University’s David Weintraub, an astronomy professor. Conjunctions involving the Moon happen frequently. Jupiter and Saturn, the two brightest and largest gas planets in our solar system, appeared unusually close on the sky from our point of view in their great conjunction on December 21, 2020. And December 21, 2020, brings the closest great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 397 years. Night Sky Map: find Saturn and Jupiter in the sky. Since September 2020, Jupiter has been moving closer and closer to Saturn in the early evening sky. In fact, some scholars have theorized that the original Christmas star, known as the Star of Bethlehem, might also have been a great conjunction. Generally speaking, a conjunction is when two objects appear close to each other in the sky. The solar system is the shape of a thin disk: the Earth, the Moon, and the planets orbit the Sun in roughly the same plane. In the Western Hemisphere, the Moon was closest to the two planets on December 16. This phenomenon, which is called a triple conjunction, is an illusion caused by the Earth's own movement around the Sun. Scroll down to see a live stream recording of the 2020 great conjunction! Jupiter and Saturn have a Great Conjunction every 19.6 years, due to their orbits (11.86 years and 29.5 years, respectively). This is the beginning of a new era! Astronomers call this plane the ecliptic. Fixed star Altair at 02°03′ Aquarius is in the neck of Aquila the Eagle. ", While these two planets may appear close, they are still hundreds of millions of miles apart, according to, Hope for clear skies because the conjunction will be visible around the world, with the best perspective for those. Provided by the San Diego Astronomy Association in San Diego, USA. When the Moon passes the Sun, the result can be an eclipse (which is where the term ecliptic comes from). If you miss this conjunction and want to see the planets with the same proximity, just higher in the sky, it won't happen until March 15, 2080 -- and then not again until after 2400. As it circles the Earth once a month, the Moon passes each of the planets in the sky. The distances are to scale; the sizes of the Sun and the planets are not. Support from colleagues is foreseen. As Jupiter and Saturn had their rendezvous just a few days before Christmas, forming what looked like a single bright object in the sky, the 2020 great conjunction is sometimes also called the “Christmas star” or “Bethlehem star.”. Jupiter orbits the sun every 12 years, while Saturn's orbit takes 30 years, so every few decades Jupiter laps Saturn, according to NASA. In December 2020, there’s a special conjunction happening, between Jupiter and Saturn. The planets will be bright enough to be viewed in twilight, which may be the best time for many US viewers to observe the conjunction. 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