Today is the winter solstice (the shortest day of the year). It is also the day that Jupiter and Saturn are so closely aligned that they appear like a single point of light in the sky. The Jupiter-Saturn conjunction (the planets closest approach) occurs every twenty years, although typically the conjunction isn’t so close. The planets have only been this near seven times over the past 3,000 years (and two of those times the planets were too close to the sun to be seen). The timing this year was perfect, just the right amount of time after sunset, just the right latitude (not Antarctica), and just the right cloudless Southern Californian sky.
What I found to be the most important aspect of tonight’s search for the Christmas Star was the fact that people all over the world were doing the same thing (you and me parallel stargazing). We all set aside whatever we were doing to gaze upwardly and hope. Hope for the famous star. Hope for the end of the year. Hope for all goodness to arrive before us. Thanks for sharing your night with me via this very cool post.