There have been a lot of headlines lately about the Christmas Star or the Star of Bethlehem being visible on Dec 21st, the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. However, this event is not stellar in nature but rather the conjunction in the sky of the planets Jupiter and Saturn.
In the video embedded below, you will see some landscape photos, pictures taken with an iPhone of the views thru a small refractor taken in the weeks leading up the conjunction event and finally video and stacked frames thru my 11-inch telescope of pair during the conjunction. The space between the 2 planets, as viewed from earth, when I took the images on December 22nd was 0.17° or the width of 2 dimes held at arm’s length.
As mentioned in the video, here is a link to the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center’s recording of the live streaming: https://youtu.be/kBLGUymllNc
Clear and Steady Skies!
-Mike
