This year has not given us much to enjoy. But for someone who has an amateur but keen interest in astronomy, there have been a fair few events to be excited about. After the sudden visit of Comet Neowise in March through July, there were a number of meteor showers, the blue moon and, finally, the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.
While I have observed meteors in the Kolkata sky, I was genuinely excited about Comet Neowise; much as everyone around the world was, despite the raging pandemic. However, I was not given that privilege by the cosmic powers that be. The monsoon was beginning to set in over the city at the time and my view of the night sky was obscured by dark clouds. [I did get a few good photos of the sunset. You can check them out here.]
After that disappointment, I was determined to watch the two largest planets in our solar system come together in the sky. Thankfully, despite the fog and haze, I was able to see the last great cosmic event of the year. Not only that, I’ve got pictures!
These conjunctions are not the rarest of occurrences. But, occurring every 20 years, they are pretty rare. This is the closest the two giants have come since 1623 and the closest observable conjunction since 1226. The next time the planets come this close will be in 2080.
The planets are actually 456 million miles apart!
Here’s what I managed to capture.
The first day was the best. 19th December.
Then it got hazier. 20th December.
And hazier. 21st December. This was the day when the two planets were closest in the sky but the smog and haze made for a difficult photograph.
To the naked eye, the two planets looked like one on the 20th and the 21st. The close-ups will show the distance between them.
19th December. Saturn is the one above.
20th December. Saturn is still above Jupiter but is now slightly to the right. The haze caused a lot of light pollution. Some of the other tiny pricks are the refracted light stars. But mostly it's light pollution.
21st December. This is the closest approach of the two planets. The haze cleared a tiny bit for this close-up and the two planets have come out clearer than I expected. Saturn is now even more to the right of Jupiter.
[Equipment: POCO X2 and Celestron 10X50 Upclose binoculars.]
P.S. The title of this article is borrowed from the Thomas Hardy poem of the same name which is actually about the sinking of the Titanic. The verses of this poem are arranged such that they resemble the shape of a ship. You can read it at the URL below:
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