Welcome to Learn the Sky! Your online resource for learning about the stars and constellations.
Welcome! My name is Janine and in this video we'll discuss the Winter Solstice of 2020 as well as
address the planetary conjunction that is also happening today. In fact, it has been happening
for the past couple weeks. If you got a chance to go on to google today, which is pretty much
a daily occurrence for me, you probably got to see this cool animation of Saturn high-fiving Jupiter.
Then you see Earth down here in a little Winter snow hat. It's so awesome because it
signifies this great planetary conjunction that hasn't happened for over 800 years.
It also acknowledges the fact that the Earth is going through the Winter Solstice. So what is
the Winter Solstice? It's derived from the term 'Sun' and 'to stand still' and that's because the Sun's
declination appears to stand still. Humans have been recording the path of the sun, moon, planets,
and stars for as long as we can remember. It's important that we recorded this in order to time
agricultural activities and the word 'solstice' is really just an another term to record an
astronomical event. There are two solstices that happen throughout the year. There's one in
the Winter and then there's one in the Summer. The opposites of those would really be the equinoxes
and that's when there is equal daylight two points during the year. One time in March and then the
other in September. But for the Winter Solstice that's when we have the shortest day of the year.
Remember the earliest humans spent more time outside than we do, so they really use the
sky as a clock and a calendar. They were able to tell and record that the sun's path
changed throughout the sky, throughout the year. What you notice right here is a record of
the Winter Solstice. It typically happens around December 21st to the 22nd
for 2020. When this video is recording it is happening on December 21st. So
what we start to see is that we have the shortest amount of daylight in the year and from this point
on the days start to get longer. So it's always a good thing, I feel, when we hit
Winter Solstice because that is the telling that Spring will eventually be here and that even
though it's cold, eventually it will warm up. Every day there will be a little bit more of daylight.
It also signifies for me that the Winter constellations are coming. I absolutely love
the Winter sky. There's just so much to see. So many brilliant constellations in the Northern
Hemisphere as well as really cool celestial objects to find. This year is really, really
special because it marks the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. As I'm reading about this
in the media, what I'm hearing a lot of is it's being called the Christmas Star which really is
a misconception because this isn't a Christmas Star. They're planets and sometimes I think
the media will sensationalize and create these special names just to bring more attention to
these astronomical events which I guess I can be okay with at some point. But this is the closest
that Saturn and Jupiter will be within like 0.1 degrees of each other in the sky. That is
really, really amazing. The next time that we will see something like this will be not
for another 80 or so years. It's really really amazing that we are getting to see this. Sorry, not
80 years but in another 60 years in 2080 is the next time there will be a conjunction like this.
The last time we saw something this like this was in 1623. So how can you find
it? What you really want to do is look to the south west horizon. Depending upon your place
on the planet and your latitude that will depend on how high Saturn and Jupiter are off the horizon.
So throughout the past few days, if you were observing this and going out
like kind of right after sunset, you can see that Saturn would be over here and Jupiter was over here.
They're starting to get closer and closer, so it really is this amazing astronomical event.
For me, unfortunately, I haven't seen much of it simply because there
have just been way too many clouds in the sky for me to see this event. But luckily I've seen both
Jupiter and Saturn through a telescope. Even though I don't own one I've seen it in the past- it would
be absolutely amazing to see it together in a telescope if you have that opportunity to do so.
If you need a little bit of help with how to find the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, I want
to bring your attention to this website. This is a website I use called in the sky.org that you can
plug in your specific location. Then it will show you what the your sky looks like
for your latitude and longitude. What I also love is that it gives a rundown or an overview of all
the different events that are happening within the sky. It it also tells you level one, level two-
how difficult it is to see. It also goes over all the constellations that are outside
during this particular time frame. So for me, I usually click on the planetarium.
As you can see it's loading and you can see this is where Saturn and Jupiter is well.
You can't see Jupiter here, but if we were to zoom in it would be here. So I love that you can
change this and you can move it. To me this is really a a super simple tool to use, especially
if you're a beginner stargazer. Here we go, here we're zooming in and you can see that Jupiter
and Saturn are really, really close to each other. So I encourage you to use this tool to help you
just explore the sky a little bit more. There's all kinds of things you can change down here
and customize. I particularly like to use the search feature. I go to object search and
if i want to find something I type it in, maybe even check some boxes here, search it, and then
it shows me where that particular object will be. So I encourage to you check this out. I find
this tool a little bit easier to use than Stellarium. I think Stellarium is a great
tool to use particularly if you use a telescope while you observe, but this one is just a little
bit simpler. I love that you can adjust it to your own location. So I wish you luck trying to
find the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. It's pretty easy to spot in the sky. I just
wish you clear skies. If there's going to be any boundary you'll come across it
will be that one. Thank you so much for watching! For those of you that watch regularly, I will
have one more video post for tomorrow and then I'll be taking a little bit of time off until the
New Year. I've got some new courses that are being released this coming New Year. I've got a Winter
Sky course, so I hope you guys would be interested in checking that out. I also have some freebies
that you can download as well on my website. Thanks so much for watching! Be sure to find
that Jupiter- Saturn conjunction and keep looking up! Remember it takes time, patience, and practice
to identify the stars, constellations, and the planets as well. Good luck and take care. Stay safe!