Today is the Solstice, the shortest daylight of the year, the official start of Winter, and also by coincidence the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the sky. If you have a clear sky tonight, be sure to check out this once in a lifetime sky event. Look to the southwest about 45 minutes after sunset.

Saw it quite well last night.

Tonight might be cloudy.

Taken last night in northern Minnesota by Nathan Klok
-Sony a7R IV
-Canon 400mm f/2.8L IS USM
-Two 2x Canon Extenders
-Sky-Watcher HEQ5 Pro equatorial mount

Cool... From here on out the days begin to get longer and as usual, every time there's some celestial event I'd like to see, it's cloudy as hell. Weather guy on the noon news was talking about it and practically said there's not much chance of seeing it tonight. Typical for this area this time of year. Although they've been close for a while as they slowly come together and then if it ever clears up around here I could see them drifting apart. If I'm recalling what he said correctly.

Looking forward to the days getting longer, one by one.

Great picture.

Nice image, but that's more gear than I can string together.

No chance to dance here visibility about 300 yds through wet snow. Hope there's something to see tomorrow night

happy yule night https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule

Appreciate the photos, that is a better view than I could ever accomplish.

Thanks for the heads-up Rocky and very cool pic whackem_stackem.

They looked really cool last night. Looking forward to tonight!

Might be able to see here

Volcano’s erupting, planets aligning, pandemic, end of 2020, what could go wrong


Bummer it’s cloudy here so I won’t be able to see chit.

Cloudy here as well,no chance tonight.

I hope someone has the same good gear for tonight.....

We are decked over double overcast and precip right now, so fuggedaboudit. Which is typical for around here. I got out the 60 power spotter and the big tripod last night but there's no chance.

Cloudy, hell. Insult added to injury. It's raining here.

Great view here in TN. Must have been 30 people up on the hill we were on.

They've been getting closer for months. The difference between tonight and last night or tomorrow night, or even the next week, is minimal

Caught ‘em trying to hide in the pines. Overcast at sunset but it cleared.

Thanks for those great pics.
You, too, Rocky.

We took the grand daughter, the good binocs and the spotting scope, not the quality of Mr. Klok's work but still pretty awesome...

Clear sky and they're a fingernail apart. Gonna go back out in a few minutes when it's a bit darker, but it was a sight to see, for sure.

Not sure if it's enough thrill to hold me for the next 400 years, but it is a thrill!

Already sunk here. Behind the bluff

Trees and topography

We had a fair view from here in Arkansas. The Wife and I drove out to the Cemetery just out from town.

After a series of cloudy nights it cleared off for a good view of the Christmas star tonight.
Wonder if means he's coming back?.Wonder if he'll be pissed?

Interesting what happened Christian church_wise in 1226?

Sky isn't clear enough to see any stars tonight.

Only lights in the sky are attached to Airplanes.

Got a good look at them as I was walking out of the woods from my stand. Cranked my scope up for a better view so yes, I was using my scope as a spotting scope. 😀 Got home and took a walk with my wife to a nearby power line so she could see them.

Too cloudy here tonight. :-(

Too many high clouds. We can see the moon through it but nothing else, at least not in the south.

Blowing snow here. How long are they up in the sky before setting?

The farther south you are, the longer you can see them before they set. About mid-country (say Denver or so) your viewing window is roughly 45 to 90 minutes after sunset.

Thankfully it was clear last night. Hard to believe Galileo spotted Jupiter’s moons in 1610 with a 10x telescope. I could barely make them out with 12x binos Pretty cool stuff to watch

Seafarers actually used the moons of Jupiter for navigation before the invention of the Harrison chronometer. The book ‘Longitude’ by Dava Sobel is a good one.

It was easier to get away from street lights in 1610.

Don’t know if we’ll get a clear enough sky to see it this year.

It's raining....

No sweat, ironbender. You can catch it next time.

To the best of my understanding it wasn’t readily visible in 1610 too close too or behind the sun, 1226 was the last good viewing.

After several days of clear weather it clouded up yesterday towards sunset. Uvalde 70 miles west of town was only partly cloudy so after sunset I travelled west on Hwy 90.

Only had to drive 10 miles out of town before I caught a break in the clouds and saw them. Pulled of the highway and broke out the binocs. So I saw ‘em and don’t have to wait another 400 years.

I gotta say tho that I liked the arrangement on Sunday night better, as per that photo linked in the thread, Jupiter below Saturn just looked better.

20+ years ago when Jupiter and Saturn were both in or near to Taurus were were at school using a telescope and I told the students next time that happened I could retire.

Well Jupiter is back in Taurus in 2023 but Saturn doesn’t get there ‘till 2028 so I got a ways to go.

Next big one to watch for is the North American total eclipse of April 8, 2024. Gonna pass just north of San Antonio.

RockyRaab: Got to see this last night (December 21st) as the two planets came together.
Had to settle for 12 power binoculars as the wind was howling (35+!) and I did not dare set up my astronomical telescope.
I have seen some of the moons of Jupiter from my yard in the past and it would have been cool to see them again - but the wind was just to miserable.
I hope to live long enough to see the next time they get so close together.
He-he.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

🤣
Was going to add that.

I was in Atlanta on the 21st, not a good place for star gazing.
I did see it last night, the 22nd, up here in the NC mountains. Very clear sky.
The two planets were pretty close together. We watched it through 10 power binoculars. Very impressive.

Thank you very much. If it was not for your alert I would have missed this event.

You are most welcome, good sir. Consider it just one Slav to another.

One thing that amazes me is that these two distant, slow moving objects can appear to move relative to each other in as little as 24 hours.

Of course most of this perceived motion at this moment in time is due to the earth whipping around the sun. The older I get the shorter a year seems.

Rocky if it is Czechoslovakia you might be a certified Czech! Be Well, RZ.

I am indeed a certified Czech, RZ. One of my better (and oldest) jokes is that I dislike travel because nobody likes an out of town Czech.

Czechs and Slavs did not always get along - one of the main problems when Czechoslovakia was created after WW-I, against the wishes of both Czechs and Slavs. But there's no animosity in my heart and my maternal grandparents came here before WW-I.

If you did not see it then it did not happen. It was aliens.

Lately, it is only aliens if it's seen by Navy pilots.

Thanks for posting - got a good look last evening and hoping for one more.

Now - looking forward to the vernal equinox.

I was driving and follows them down until the they disappeared and the road ended in a housing "projects" area.
Sort of appropriate for the "Christmas Star" to set in a poor and over crowded spot.

I was hoping for something better, but on reflection, the inn was probably not a prosperous place...