Blog of Hammad Rais

Look up in the sky!

No, I seriously mean it!

Especially if you want to see two other worldly entities of our solar system heading slowly towards each other on our night sky.

Because this just don’t happen every night for sure!

This is the view of early night sky from my roof top which I captured today, after about 25-30 minutes of the sunset.

Can you spot a tiny star, just few inches away from the middle of this photo?

That’s right there, in the red circle!

Now, this may look like a tiny star in this photo but this is actually Jupiter, which is moving closely on the night sky towards Saturn, which you can’t see in this photo.

How about a zoom-in version, for a better look?

Much clear now!

The reason I’m sharing this is because on the night of 21st December 2020, both Jupiter and Saturn will appear closest to each other in the night sky in four centuries.

That’s 400 years, folks!

The last time both these gaseous giants of our solar system got close to each other was in July 1623.

And till March 2080, they will not be as close like this ever again.

So yes, I’m not missing my chance to capture a daily snap of this once-in-a-lifetime + out-of-this-world phenomenon.

Right after the sunset, look over to the southern part of your sky and you may spot these two gaseous giants with naked eye, edging towards each other every passing day.

If you own a good pair of binoculars or a small size telescope, then you may get a really close up view of this.

I will be sharing daily captures of this conjunction on my blog till 21st December, when both of them will be mere one-tenth of a degree apart on the night sky.

You can read more about this conjunction by clicking here.