Jupiter and Saturn to align on Dec 21 to create 'Christmas Star'; here's how to watch

Marking a spectacular cosmic sight, planets Jupiter and Saturn are set to line up to create what is known as “Christmas Star” or “star of Bethlehem” on December 21. While the two planets have been travelling together throughout the year, it would be for the first time that the two would appear just a tenth of a degree apart, NASA confirmed. The “Christmas Miracle”, which is set to happen after 800 years, would feature the two planets appearing to be closest since middle ages. 

“This means the two planets and their moons will be visible in the same field of view through binoculars or a small telescope. In fact, Saturn will appear as close to Jupiter as some of Jupiter's moons,” NASA explained in a statement.

'Greatest' great conjunction

The event sometimes referred to as The Great Conjunction, occurs roughly every 19 to 20 years, however, for the uninformed, these two planets haven’t appeared this (relatively) close together from Earth's vantage point since the Middle Ages. According to NASA, this would also mark “greatest” great conjunction between the two planets for the next sixty years. In addendum to the great conjunction, this event would also mark the beginning of winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and the summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere.

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Credits: nasa

Speaking to Forbes about the rare event, Patrick Hartigan, an astronomer at Rice University said that alignments between the two planets were “rather rare”, however his conjunction was “exceptionally rare” because of how close the planets would appear to be to one another. He then added that the last time similar phenomenon occurred was just before dawn on March 4, 1226.

How to watch it?

People interested in watching it from the Northern Hemisphere would be required to turn their heads and telescopes the southwest portion of the sky about 45 minutes after sunset to see the planets align on December 21. 

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