Look to the Skies – This Monday, December 21st, 2020 after Sunset – for a Rare Look at the “Christmas Star”

Skywatchers Call It “The Great Conjunction”. Beginning this December 21^st and for the Next Few Weeks, It is also a Great (and most welcome) Diversion from COVID-19 and Related Madness

Posted by Niagara At Large publisher and reporter Doug Draper

December 21^st, 2020

“Skywatchers are in for an end-of-year treat,” begins a recent news release from NASA.

“What has become known popularly as the “Christmas Star,” continues the news release, “is an especially vibrant planetary conjunction easily visible in the evening sky over the next two weeks as the bright planets Jupiter and Saturn come together, culminating on the night of Dec. 21.”

“In 1610, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei pointed his telescope to the night sky, discovering the four moons of Jupiter – Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. In that same year, Galileo also discovered a strange oval surrounding Saturn, which later observations determined to be its rings. These discoveries changed how people understood the far reaches of our solar system.

“Thirteen years later, in 1623, the solar system’s two giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, traveled together across the sky. Jupiter caught up to and passed Saturn, in an astronomical event known as a “Great Conjunction.”  …

For more details on when and where to watch for this rare event in our skies, check out the NASA news release and a related Globe and Mail newspaper story below.

To read the full NASA media release, with details on when and where to watch for this sky spectacular, click on – https://www.nasa.gov/feature/the-great-conjunction-of-jupiter-and-saturn

To read a Globe and Mail report on the Great Conjuction, including an audio report, click on – https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-how-to-see-and-photograph-the-great-conjunction-of-2020/ .

To watch it when or after it happens, try clicking on the screen, at the appropriate time, immediately below –

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