Official Space Thread

Not astrology at all. I mean, the website is astronomy.com and the final paragraph says don’t go thinking there is any astrological significance even if 2020 has been a shocker of a year :laughing:

3 Likes

Sorry for getting my terminology mixed up.

3 Likes

Geminids at their peak tonight/tomorrow, and the Great Conjuction and Solstice next week…

The 2020 ‘Great Conjunction’ of Saturn and Jupiter is the closest these planets will appear in the sky since 1623 – just after Galileo first observed them with his telescope.

3 Likes

Astronomy and astrophysics are definitely space-related!

Some context from my wife, the rocket scientist: the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter happens every 20 years, which is already a rare event in terms of human lifetimes. The fact that the conjunction grows “slightly” (in the cosmic sense) closer, then further apart, then closer again over the span of hundreds of years is actually less significant than the occurrence of the conjunction itself every 20 years.

1 Like

Can the rocket scientist confirm if it generally occurs around the same time of the year each time? The last time it happen I vaguely remember reading/seeing (?) some thoughts that the brightness of the conjunction may perhaps be the basis for the tale of the Star of Bethlehem that the 3 Wise Magi allegedly followed way back when…

2 Likes

Ani says she doesn’t know how much the occurrence of the conjunction would move every 20 years. It could be a few hours, a few days, a few weeks…

However, as far as I know it’s pretty well established that the story of Jesus’ birth is probably set in the Northern hemisphere’s spring or summer, or perhaps autumn.

Definitely not the middle of winter in December. Part of the argument is that there is no way a bunch of shepherds were out in the fields at night during winter in the desert.

I see there are a bunch of hypotheses regarding what celestial event the Book of Matthew might be referring to. The only likely conjunction explanation I’ve come across is Kaufman’s hypothesis from the 70s. I’ll upload it here because you have to hit the Internet Archive to find the PDF nowadays.

However, the most likely explanation (if there is one) is probably a comet of some kind, rather than a conjunction.

5 Likes

The guy used two telescopes, more info:
https://old.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/comments/kcmjaa/saturn_and_jupiter_approaching_their_conjunction/gfret3k/

3 Likes
3 Likes

Sign me up. I’ll go.

2 Likes

Wait. What?


2 Likes

Yeah. He’s now the second high-powered individual to make such claims that I know of. The first was a Canadian general, IIRC.

Unfortunately, it’s clear that this guy is just trying to sell his book by making statements he knows will get picked up in the media and get shared around.

2 Likes

I remember that Canadian general’s interview, ya.

You’re probably right about the book sales, but I’m still hopeful. Just as long as it isn’t the reapers.

2 Likes

Surely they would just show up?

1 Like

Well, they’ve got their horns

1 Like

Jupiter/Saturn conjunction visible now. Bloody clouds!!!

Edit: They set at about 20:40 last night where I am.

3 Likes

Had a couple of minutes of no cloud in the area:

Coupl’a moons
image

Very grainy, but…
image

3 Likes

Having no luck from my place :expressionless: I may just try another moon pic or two…

3 Likes

Good luck!

3 Likes

We drove out to Llandudno last night, watched the sun set and then waited for the conjunction to appear in the sky. We didn’t have a telescope or anything with us, sadly, but it was still awesome.

Only disappointed that a kaiju didn’t emerge from the ocean, or that magical monsters didn’t enter our world at the conjunction of the spheres or something. It is 2020, after all.

3 Likes

You ever think about how the moon is approximately 400x smaller than the sun whilst also being approximately 400x closer to earth therefore making them appear to be the exact same size in the sky?

5 Likes