Great Conjunction - Jupiter & Saturn - 2020 DEC 21

[paulastro]

On 28/11/2020 at 20:06, CentaurZ said:

I noted in my opening post that this will be the narrowest angular separation between the two since 1623. Actually, the pair in 1623 was separated by only 5.2 arcminutes, but at an elongation from the Sun of less than 13˚. That would have been quite difficult to observe by naked eyes. The next earlier yet better separation than in 2020 was in 1226 at 2.1 arcminutes separation and 49˚ from the Sun. The 2080 separation will be 6.0 arcminutes, barely less than this year's 6.1 arcminutes. But the 44˚ elongation from the Sun will be better than this year's 30˚.

I'll look forward to that.  Has anyone ever lived to be 126 years old?

[Mark at Beaufort]

On 28/11/2020 at 20:06, CentaurZ said:

I noted in my opening post that this will be the narrowest angular separation between the two since 1623. Actually, the pair in 1623 was separated by only 5.2 arcminutes, but at an elongation from the Sun of less than 13˚. That would have been quite difficult to observe by naked eyes. The next earlier yet better separation than in 2020 was in 1226 at 2.1 arcminutes separation and 49˚ from the Sun. The 2080 separation will be 6.0 arcminutes, barely less than this year's 6.1 arcminutes. But the 44˚ elongation from the Sun will be better than this year's 30˚.

That is very useful information. Several astronomers have quoted 800 years so your explanation sets it out better. Unfortunately I won't make 2080 so I am glad that I had view in my scope this time.

 

 

[CentaurZ]

On 22/12/2020 at 13:15, Mark at Beaufort said:

That is very useful information. Several astronomers have quoted 800 years so your explanation sets it out better. Unfortunately I won't make 2080 so I am glad that I had view in my scope this time.

 

 

Indeed, there have been less complete descriptions published elsewhere. 2080 might also be difficult for me, since I am currently 75. 😉

I noted in my original post that occultations of Saturn by Jupiter are exceptionally rare. And we also don't see mutual planetary occultations very often in the cases of any pairs of planets. We are currently in an unusually long dry spell. The most recent case was an 1818 occultation of Jupiter by Venus, with no observation reports. The only report ever of a mutual  planetary occultation was by an amateur astronomer who observed Venus occulting Mercury in 1737. The next mutual planetary occultation will be when Venus occults Jupiter in 2065, but that will be almost impossible to observe with an elongation from the Sun of only 8˚. 🙁