Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn creates Christmas star
The night of Dec. 21 was a special night because of the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. Some reporters in the press have suggested that this conjunction might have been the Christmas Star over Bethlehem on the night of Jesus’ birth.
We do not know what sort of sight presented itself on that first Christmas night, but on the night of our Dec. 21, Jupiter and Saturn appeared very close together in the night sky. I have included a photo of this that I made in my backyard on the outskirts of Siloam Springs. I hope some of you were able to see it.
In order to see Saturn and its rings, Jupiter had to be a bit overexposed. However, this overexposure presented a nice bonus that I didn’t expect—some of the moons of Jupiter. The little white dots running diagonally on either side of Jupiter are moons of Jupiter, each roughly the size of our own Moon. Of course, Jupiter is very far away so these moons are tiny as seen from Earth.
This conjunction, which literally means ‘coming together,’ last happened about 800 years ago. What did the people seeing this then think it was? Perhaps there are some written records of this event and the meanings assigned to it from a Medieval perspective.
While Jupiter and Saturn appear close, this closeness results from our perspective on Earth. On Dec. 21,
Jupiter and Saturn were actually more than 400 million miles from one another with Saturn behind Jupiter at that distance.
More from the night sky in January!
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