Anyone else been keeping an eye on Jupiter and Saturn recently? It’s the great conjunction tonight!

Sadly it’s cloudy tonight here in Manc but I went out to the park last night, just about spotted a single orange dot very low over the rooftops. Both planets nicely visible with binoculars.
I’ve been interested in space stuff since a child, only in a very amateur kind of way but super excited about this!
800 years since this was last visible! Go out and have a look! Once in a lifetime chance! (My wife thinks I’m slightly nuts)

Mars is nice and bright at the moment as well.

We went out to see it last night. Too cloudy for the main show today unless something changes in the next few hours.

It’s not really dark enough here when they set over the local horizon.

Mars was really bright last night though. I had it shining in my face while bivvying.

Moon nice at the moment too, super accentuated craters but nothing different to every other month. Saw the conjunction last night on the basis that tonight looks like a no-show. Could see the Jovian Moons though.

Finally got a clear night.

Really clear view of the conjunction, slight gap with the naked eye between the two. The gap is obvious with a small pair of binoculars. With a 6″ Dobsonion the four Galilean moons are in a line and happen to point towards Saturn. Saturn’s rings are prominent and you can see the gap between them and the planet.

I’ve tried a couple of times, too cloudy and now tonight I think I was too late and it was already low down on the horizon behind the bright lights of the harbour.

I might try tomorrow if we time the Christmas Day dog walk right.

Take a look at these for some fantastic photos from around the world of the conjunction…

https://earthsky.org/todays-image/jupiter-saturn-photos-drawing-closer-conjunction-dec21-2020?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=048c7600ee-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_02_02_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-048c7600ee-393572517