Night Sky Photography -- 09-08-2025 -- Full Corn Moon & Saturn

Greetings fellow stargazers!

Late last night I captured these wonderful shots of the planet Saturn with the September full moon -- also known as the Full Corn Moon here in North America.

The Full Corn Moon is the last full moon of summer and this year the September full moon falls before the fall equinox. When the full moon arrives in September after first day of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, that full moon is the Full Harvest Moon. This year's Harvest Moon will happen in October.

The planet Neptune, the 8th planet in our Solar System, presently lies near Saturn in the night sky -- though it is much too distant for the naked eye to see without a very good telescope and an idea of where it might be.

I labeled the approximate location of Neptune in its relation between the Full Corn Moon and Saturn in the evening sky. At present, the large blue gas giant planet, Neptune, sits about 2.78 billion miles (or 4.475 billion kilometers) from Earth; with the much larger giant planet, Saturn, at about 881 million miles (or 1.42 billion kilometers) from Earth in its present orbit around the Sun.

Once again I hope y'all enjoyed my late-night photographs. I hope to have more soon, so stay tuned and keep watching the night skies, y'all!

Night Sky Photography -- 04-08-2024 -- The Visible Planets With Partial Solar Eclipse

It was a big day here in North America this week with the April 8th Total Solar Eclipse arriving this afternoon, appearing overhead in a line across the continent from Mexico to Canada.

Map showing the line of totality during the April 8, 2024 Solar Eclipse.
The Partial Solar Eclipse was visible throughout North America from Canada to Panama.

During a Solar Eclipse, the Moon crosses the path of the Sun casting its shadow on the surface of
the Earth.

During a Total Solar Eclipse, the deepest part of the Moon's shadow (the umbra) covers the narrow area of totality, while the lighter part of the Moon's shadow (the penumbra) covers the wider area where only a Partial Solar Eclipse can be seen.

Here in upstate South Carolina, those of us with the proper eye protection were only able to see about 75% of the totality, with the Moon's penumbra shadow casting down making the planets in our Solar System and some of the brightest stars visible.

On Monday, April 8th, I was able to capture one really beautiful image of all the visible planets of our Solar System between the Partial Solar Eclipse at its peak. It was a unique opportunity to see all of these planets in the daytime.

At present Venus is far too close to the Sun to be visible for the next few months, and Saturn and Mars are expected to pass each other on the mornings of Tuesday the 9th and Wednesday the 10th, but they are so low on the horizon before sunrise that its hard to catch them unless you live in an elevated place before the Sun blocks them out. Mercury can be seen low on the horizon just after sunset, but again you see a high place with no obstructions to really see it.

Night Sky Photography -- 11-19-2023 -- Jupiter, Uranus, & The Pleiades Rising In The East

This afternoon, I took an outstanding photo about 40 minutes before sunset of the First Quarter Moon in the late afternoon skies between the branches of the now leafless tree in my backyard.

Later the same evening I captured two more shots. The first was the large superior planet, Saturn, near the Moon overhead between the tree and the side of my house. The second being a much more breathtaking shot of the planets Jupiter and distant Uranus (just barely visible) along with the bright stars of the Pleiades Star Cluster (Seven Sisters) just above the treetops rising in the east.

Uranus will remain between the "Seven Sisters" and Jupiter for pretty much the remainder of the year, so spotting it with a pair of good binoculars, or a telescope should not be hard for those of us living in North America and with reasonably good night sky conditions.

Night Sky Photography -- 09-29-2023 -- The Full Super Harvest Moon & The Outer Planets

Good morning fellow Stargazers!

Early this morning I was awake to capture some great shots of four of the largest outer planets in our Solar System in the night sky dome with the final Supermoon of 2023.

The first Full Moon after the fall equinox is most famously called the Harvest Moon in North America. Because its also the last of four Supermoons of the year, its also the Full Super Harvest Moon. The last Supermoon is roughly around 224,658 miles (or 361,552 km) from Earth and appears about 5% bigger and about 13% brighter than the average full moon.

The Harvest Moon of 2023 sits between the planets Uranus and Jupiter to the east, and Neptune and Saturn to the west. Jupiter and Saturn are easy to spot in the clear skies, but Uranus and Neptune -- which are close to Jupiter and Luna respectively -- I highlighted when I labeled my photos.

I hope y'all enjoyed my final night sky and planetary photos of the month of September and the first ones of the fall season here in North America respectively. Looking forward to next month and my favorite holiday of the year.

Night Sky Photography -- 08-31-2023 -- The Super Blue Moon & Orion Stars In Early Morning Hours

Good morning, fellow stargazers!

Today I had to wake up extra early -- about just over 90 minutes before sunrise in fact -- to capture my photographs of the second Full Moon and third Supermoon of August, 2023: the Blue Supermoon, or Super Blue Moon.

The reason I had to wait till the early hours to take the shots was due to extensive cloud cover from summer thunderstorms brought about as a result of the recent hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Thankfully those storms moved off about 5 AM Eastern Standard Time (EDT) and gave way to perfectly clear early morning skies, as you can see in my first shot.

Currently, the Super Blue Moon is 222,043 miles (or 357,344 kilometers) from the Earth, making it the closes of the four Supermoons this year -- which is why I was thankful to be able to capture some great photos of it.

The next two photos are close-up of the features of the Super Blue Moon showing all the larger craters and the dark gray "seas" on the visible Lunar surface that we see here on the Earth.

My final Full Moon photo is a wider shot of the Super Blue Moon along with the planet Saturn just above the tree lines.

Since I was up so early I turned my camera to the eastern sky where the Constellation Orion The Hunter was making his way back into the early morning sky.

In my final two photos I was able to capture all the major stars of Orion, as well as the nearby bright stars Aldebaran and Procyon.

That concludes my night sky offerings for the month of August 2023. I hope y'all enjoyed my photos as I continue to enjoy posting them for y'all.

Have a wonderful Dixie Day and y'all be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies.

Night Sky Photography -- 08-01-2023 -- The First Of Two Supermoons In August 2023!

Good evening, y'all!

Last night, after several nights of the surprise hit-and-run rainstorms common for summers down her in my corner of Dixie, and overcast skies, we finally managed to have clear semi-clear skies....and just in time for the first of two full moons in the month of August, 2023.

This year both this evening's Full Sturgeon Moon -- the name for the August full moon in North America -- and the Blue Moon of Wednesday, August 30th are Supermoons!

This evening, the Full Sturgeon Supermoon is approximately 222,158 miles (or, 357,530 km) from the Earth.

In the wider night sky shot you can also see the planet Saturn near the Full Moon. I thought the moonlight with the nearby clouds came out quite beautifully with the giant ringed planet a small, bright dot nearby. Saturn is currently 820,817,683 miles (1,320,978,013 kilometers, or 8.8 AUs) from the Earth. Saturn is currently located inside the Constellation Aquarius.

Saturn will also be present with the Blue Supermoon on August 30th and appear much closer. I'm praying for clear skies so that I can photograph them that evening.

Night Sky Photography -- 01-23-2023 -- Young Crescent Moon & Planets Venus, & Saturn In Evening Sky....and a UFO?!

Good evening fellow stargazers!

Today I want to share with y'all my latest night sky photographic offerings for your viewing pleasure. I was about to capture outstanding shots of the beautiful waxing crescent moon aligned with Venus and Saturn in the western sky after sunset.

Taken about fifty minutes after sunset these two photographs show the young crescent moon near the two planets Venus and Saturn close to the western horizon. The day before Venus and Saturn were in close conjunction (about a moon's width apart) but I was unable to get a photo of this due to an evening rainstorm and cloud cover.

As you can see in my first photo, the two planets are almost perfectly aligned in the evening sky. The second photo is a close-up shot of the three heavenly bodies. Distant Saturn appears brightest about 40 minutes after sunset making it easy to spot among the first evening "stars" to appear in the sky dome. Hot Venus, the bright evening star, is of course the third-brightest body visible from Earth in the Solar System, after our lovely Luna and the Sun.

If you look closely at the first picture you might notice something a bit eerie. A small, bright colorful object to the left of the shot.

Is it an actual UFO?! Did I actually capture photographic evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence?!

Weeeeeeell, not exactly. Its actually a commercial passenger jet plane flying in its path and the colors are the bright running lights of the plane as its moving as the photograph was being shot. No aliens here.

Oh well....stranger things can happen if you keep looking at the night skies.

Planetary Photography -- 09-09-2022 -- Full Harvest Moon With Planets & Mars With Taurus and Auriga Rising

Good evening, fellow stargazers!

Well folks, autumn is only a few weeks away. Summer here in South Carolina is beginning to wind down, although the humidity will likely be sticking around for at least another month -- possibly till just after Halloween into November.

About an hour after midnight on Friday, September 9th, I was able to capture some really good photos of the Full Harvest Moon -- the name given to the Full Moon in September here in North America in relation to the coming autumn harvest season.

The Full Harvest Moon can be seen in my first photograph taken between the two large gas giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn. The second photo is a close-up of the Harvest Moon as it appears to us from the surface of the Earth.

Just above the tree line to the south between the planets and Luna, you can easily spot Fomalhaut, one of the brightest stars in the night sky (the third-brightest as seen from Earth), forming a sort of inverted triangle in the southeastern sky.

Looking towards the eastern sky, also just above the tree line, Mars can still be seen close to the bright red giant star, Aldebaran -- the Eye of Taurus the Bull.

In my last two photos, I captured Mars as it appears now between Aldebaran and the Pleiades Star Cluster. Mars currently sits just inside the Constellation Taurus the Bull and will remain so throughout the month of September.

The bright star, Capella, can be seen just to the side forming a triangle in the eastern sky. Capella is the brightest star of the Constellation Auriga the Charioteer.

In my final photo I outlined the major stars of the Constellations Taurus and Auriga in their relation with the "Seven Sisters" and Mars rising in the eastern sky.

All of these photos were taken an hour after midnight. If y'all are able to stay up another hour, or so, the bright stars of the Constellation Orion the Hunter will also appear above the horizon as the winter constellations will being to reappear overhead in the sky dome.

Y'all might also notice that Mars is getting brighter in the sky as our Earth is moving closer to opposition with the Red Planet -- the point where Earth will be between Mars and the Sun, which will take place on Thursday, December 8th of this year. Given the distances and the orbits of our two worlds, Mars only reaches opposition to the Earth every 26 months, or so.

Once again I hope y'all enjoyed my night time photography. If y'all live in the Northern Hemisphere, be sure to check out the visible planets of our Solar System this month.

Night Sky Photography -- 08-14-2022 -- Saturn At Opposition With Constellation Capricornus

Good evening fellow stargazers!

On the night of Sunday, August 14th, Saturn reached its opposition (or nearest point) to Earth in its rotation around the sun coming to within 823 million miles (or 1.32 billion km). That's pretty close in terms of the Solar System in general, but to put it in astronomical terms: 73 light-minutes -- or about 8.8 astronomical units (AU).

In the night sky, at its closest approach, Saturn, the second-largest planet in our Solar System, appears to us here on Earth as a faint magnitude 0.3 star. At the present time it can be found close to the faint summer Constellation Capricornus the Sea-Goat -- which I kinda outlined in the photo I took, although the stars are far too faint and the sky wasn't nearly as clear as I'd liked.

Though it appears as a faint star in the night sky, the sixth planet of our Solar System is actually around 10 times the diameter of Earth at about 72,400 miles (116,500 km) across -- and that's not counting the planet's famous ring system that circle the gas giant. Including the rings themselves, you could sit about 21 Earth's across the entire length of the planet!

Unfortunately its next to impossible to view this rings from Earth without a good telescope, and a very clear sky. Though at full magnification, with a good pair of binoculars Saturn appears to be more oval-shaped.

Night Sky Photography -- 08-12/13-2022 -- Full Supermoon & Saturn Near Opposition

Greetings Fellow Stargazers!

Last night and early this morning we were blessed with clear skies finally, and just in time to catch the tail-end of the final Supermoon of 2022!

The August Full Moon -- also known as the Full Sturgeon Moon in North America -- is the final of the four Supermoons of 2022 which began in May and continued throughout the summer months.

In actuality, our lovely Luna achieved its full moon phase officially overnight between Thursday, August 11th and Friday, August 12th, however cloud cover and South Carolina's weird summer weather prevented me from actually capturing the full disk. Tonight's photo actually shows the nearly full supermoon at about 99.8% but still close enough to get the idea and see all of the surface features of the full moon.

The Full Sturgeon Supermoon was at its closest to the Earth on the early morning of August 12th at approximately 224,569 miles (361,409 km).

You can also see the full supermoon is between the large superior planets: Jupiter and Saturn. Saturn is very close it its opposition to the Earth -- when the Earth is between the Sun and Saturn. That officially occurs on the evening of Sunday, August 14th. Hopefully I'll be able to post some photos of that event, weather permitting.

Night Sky Photography -- 06-20-2022 -- Parade Of Planets & Last Quarter Moon

Greetings, Salutations, and Happy Summer Solstice, Y'all!

Early this morning I woke up in time to capture some really good shots of the Last Quarter Moon along with four of our planetary neighbors in the early morning sky.

Throughout this month its possible to see all five of the traditional "wandering stars" (planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) in the early morning sky about an hour before sunrise in a line across the eastern sky.

If you're fortunately enough to live someplace with little obstruction on the horizon, it might be possible to see all five planets in a line across the sky.

Unfortunately for me, little Mercury currently lies too close to the horizon behind the trees for me to get a clear shot at the moment, though as it slowly begins to rise in the eastern sky ahead of the sunrise, I should be able to get a better chance before the end of this month.

Today though, I was able to capture four of the planets -- although they were too far apart for me to photograph into one frame, I was able to get some really good shots.

The first photo shows Mars, Jupiter, Luna, and Saturn in more or less a straight line across the southeastern sky overhead. The second is bright Venus a little further from Mars towards the horizon.

 

My third photograph is a close-up of the Last Quarter Moon that highlights most of the visible features of the "Man on the Moon" with the Earth's shadow cutting across half of the lunar surface.

And speaking of moons, my final photo is a close-up shot of the large gas giant planet, Jupiter, with its four Galilean moons (Io, Callisto, Europa, and Ganymede) visible -- and in almost a straight line.

Well I hope that y'all enjoyed my photos and welcome summer 2022!

Night Sky Photography -- 04-25-2022 -- Parade Of Planets Before Dawn

Good morning friends and fellow stargazers!

Well, early this morning -- well before my usual wake up time -- I went into town to the highest point with a clearest view of the eastern sky to capture a couple of really beautiful shots of four planets: Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, in a parade across the predawn sky, along with the crescent moon.

As you can see, the planets are all, more or less, in a straight line across the early morning sky with Luna passing beneath them. Tomorrow (April 27th), the moon will be a thin crescent beneath Jupiter and Venus.

Spotting the planetary parade is easy with Venus being the brightest object in the early morning sky once the moon passes below the horizon towards its New Moon (or No Moon) Phase. From there you can easily find the other three fainter Wandering Stars in the line of the Ecliptic.

Jupiter and Venus themselves are moving closer towards a glorious close conjunction in the morning sky on Saturday, April 30th and Sunday, May 1st, when the two planets will be less than the moon's distance from each other (or about 0.2 degrees apart) with Venus passing just under Jupiter from our view here on Earth.

Now then y'all might be asking where is Mercury in all this? Well, the answer to that question is the planet closest to the Sun is better seen in the evening sky closer to the west and sunset. Right now Mercury is close to a conjunction of its own with the Pleiades Star Cluster on Saturday, April 30th.

Hopefully, with God and clear skies willing, I'll be able to capture both the close conjunctions of Venus and Jupiter, as well as Mercury's "meeting" with the Seven Sisters this weekend.

Until then keep your eyes to the skies, y'all!

Night Sky Photography -- 04-04-2022 -- Saturn & Mars Conjunction In The Morning/Luna & Pleiades In The Evening

Good evening, fellow stargazers!

Early this morning, I was able to capture a couple of great photos of the conjunction between the planets Saturn and Mars about an hour before sunrise.

The two planets can be seen with the bright planet, Venus about 90 minutes, or so before sunrise. Despite being millions of miles apart and Saturn being a far larger planet than little Mars, both appear to be about the same size in the early morning sky and about the width of the full moon apart.

The three planets will remain close to each other for the rest of the month of April, and will be joined by Jupiter lower towards the rising sun. By the middle of the month, around the 14th and 15th of April, the four planets will appear in a parade following the ecliptic in the early morning sky. This blogger will do his best to try and get a great shot of that event.

As morning made way to evening, I captured another beautiful shot of the Young Crescent Moon together in the sky with the Pleiades Star Cluster and the larger nearby Hyades Star Cluster in the Constellation Taurus The Bull in the western sky.

Located about 153 light years (47 parsecs) from the Sun, the Hyades is the nearest and one of the best-studied star clusters. From the perspective of observers on Earth, the brightest stars of the Hyades Cluster appears in the form of a V shape as the head of the bull along with the still-brighter Aldebaran, which is actually unrelated to the Hyades, as it is located much closer to Earth and appears along the same line of sight.

The Pleiades by contrast are about 444 light-years (136 parsecs) from the Sun and its brightest seven stars (also known as the Seven Sisters) are more tightly packed together in a small dipper.

Together the Hyades and the Pleiades both form another asterism referred to as the Golden Gate of the Ecliptic where all the planets of our Solar System and the moon travel across the night and morning sky, passing between these two star clusters which form the two posts of this virtual gate at the two sides of the ecliptic line.

Well folks, I hope y'all enjoyed my planetary and night sky offering for this evening. Please let me know what y'all think in the comments below, as well as any information I might have left out.

Until next time be sure to keep your eyes to the skies, y'all hear!

Night Sky Photography -- 12-24-2021 -- Planets With Comet Leonard In Southwestern Sky On Christmas Day!

Good Evening & Merry Christmas 2021, Y'all!

This evening, following the traditional family gathering, I journeyed out to the nearby baseball field to capture a Christmas Day photo of the three planets, Venus, Saturn, & Jupiter lined up in the southwestern evening sky an hour after sunset.

In addition to the planets, and the bright stars Fomalhaut and Altair, I was just barely able to capture the nearby nucleus of the Comet Leonard (C/2021 A1) just above the horizon.

Comet Leonard last passed by our planet about 80,000 years ago and made its closest approach to Earth on Sunday, December 12, when it came within 21 million miles.

The comet was discovered on January 3rd of this year by astronomer Gregory J. Leonard of the Mount Lemmon Observatory near Tucson, Arizona. The comet will disappear forever as it travels even further into space after it passes by Earth and leaves our Solar System traveling at approximately 158,084 miles per hour -- or more than half the distance between our Earth and the Moon (238,900 miles).

If y'all would like to witness this once in a lifetime celestial event for yourself, then you're in luck. Comet Leonard will appear in the night sky in both hemispheres until the end of December. However, the comet's nucleus is not visible to the naked eye without the aid of a telescope, binoculars, or camera lens.

As you can see in the photo, I was barely able to capture the nucleus as it appears very light blue against the dusk. I could not capture the comet's tail properly with the lens I had unfortunately. All the same, I'm proud that I was able to get this shot for y'all.

I hope y'all enjoyed this evening's night sky offering, my little Christmas present for y'all. Have a wonderful Holiday Season and be sure to keep your eyes to the night skies, y'all hear!

Night Sky Photography -- 11-17-2021 -- Parade Of Planets In Southwestern Sky

This evening I was able to capture the parade of planets visible all this month in the sky dome just after sunset using a local convenience store in the foreground.

As you can see Venus is the brightest object in the night sky right now, with Jupiter (the largest planet in out solar system) in second place, while ringed Saturn appears as a barely visible dot you can just make out.

Amateur stargazers should be able to easily spot the three planets through the rest of the year, Venus is the brightest planet in the evening sky until January when it will begin to appear in the morning sky before sunrise. Using Venus as a starting point, follow the ecliptic -- the path the sun travels across the sky -- you will find bright Jupiter. Distant Saturn, which sits between both bright planets, will be harder to spot with the naked eye until at least a hour after sunset.

Night Sky Photography -- 09-12-2021 -- The Red Star Antares & Formalhaut in the Southern Sky

Good evening fellow stargazers!

The summer of 2021 will soon be coming to a close here in the Northern Hemisphere with the arrival of the autumn equinox on Wednesday the 22nd later this month.

Here in my little corner of Dixie, the fireflies will soon disappear for the year -- as will all those loud Cicadas! -- and the sunshine will soon make way for earlier and earlier evening skies. The stars overhead in our sky dome will also change with the tilting of the Earth towards the winter constellations over the next few months.

The bright red star Antares, the summer star for the Northern Hemisphere, will continue to appear to move westward following the setting sun.

This evening Antares was close to our lovely Luna, still a day away from her first quarter phase, and I was able to capture a really good shot of this conjunction just above the tree line.

The 1st-magnitude star Antares is the brightest star in the Constellation Scorpius the Scorpion -- which unfortunately I was unable to capture being too low on the horizon at this time. Its also the fifteenth-brightest star in the night sky. Antares is often referred to as "the heart of the scorpion".

The name Antares itself means "The Rival of Ares" (the Greek name for their god of war, Mars for the Romans) because of the star's distinctive red coloring and the fact its noticeably brighter in the sky dome than Mars, except for those times ever two years when the Red Planet is in close opposition to the Earth. In actuality, Mars is actually more of an orange-yellow glow, while Antares is always quite red as you can see in the photo.

Antares is a red supergiant star approximately 604 light-years from our Sun. In terms of size, Antares is about 700 times larger than our own star and about 9,000 times brighter. So big that if Antares replaced our own Sun in our Solar System, it would engulf all of the inner planets and the asteroid belt!

Yet, despite this massive size, Antares is relatively cooler than our sun. Our bright star burns as a whopping 11,000 F while Antares is somewhere around 6,500 F -- still pretty hot, but cool as far as stars go. This lower temperature is what gives Antares its distinctive red coloring.

While Antares appears as a single star when viewed with the naked eye, but it is actually a binary star, with its two components called Scorpii A and Scorpii B. The brighter of the pair is the red supergiant itself, while the fainter is a hot main sequence star.

A couple of hours later into the evening I captured a bright trio in the southeast: the two gas giant planets Jupiter and Saturn, along with the bright white star Foralhaut.

Fomalhaut (Alpha Piscis Austrinus) is sometimes called the Loneliest Star because it’s the only bright star in a wide stretch of sky. It's also called the Autumn Star because it appears more clearly in the southern sky in the fall months in the Northern Hemisphere. Fomalhaut certainly can be considered to be the star that announces the arrival of fall in the Northern Hemisphere because it stands out in what is otherwise a rather empty region of the autumn sky.

The 18th brightest star in the night sky, Fomalhaut is part of the faint Constellation Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fish. The name Fomalhaut derives from the Arabic Fum al Hut, meaning Mouth of the Fish.

Fomalhaut is a hot bluish-white star about 25 light-years away. It’s almost twice the mass and size of our Sun, but radiates at about 17 times the Sun’s energy. Fomalhaut itself is a young star, just 440 million years old. That’s in contrast to the estimated 5 billion years for our Sun. Because Fomalhaut is hotter and brighter than our Sun, it also has a shorter life span of somewhere around 1 billion years. Stars like our Sun have life spans of about 10 billion years.

Both Antares and Fomalhaut are considered to be two of the four key stars of the night sky, sometimes referred to as the Royal Stars, or the Celestial Guardians (or "archangel stars"): Antares as Uriel, the Watcher of the West; Aldebaran representing Michael, the Watcher of the East; Fomalhaut representing Gabriel, the Watcher of the South; and Regulus as Raphael, the Watcher of the North.

Well folks, I hope y'all enjoyed my photos and presentation. Please let me know in the comments below and, as always, have a wonderful Dixie Day and y'all keep your eyes to the night skies, ya hear!

Night Sky Photography -- 04-07-2021 -- The Moon, Jupiter & Saturn

Good morning, fellow Stargazers!

I took this wonderful shot of the moon with Jupiter and Saturn in the early morning sky just over an hour ago as I went into town, using the city buildings, street lights, and the power lines in the foreground.

The two largest planets appear as a pair of small bright stars from our vantage point here on Earth.

Night Sky Photography -- 12-21-2020 -- The Great "Christmas Star" Conjunction of Jupiter & Saturn!

Good Evening and Happy Holidays, Y'all!

Today, December 21st, marks the winter solstice for 2020. The winter solstice marks both the shortest day of the year, as well as the longest night of the year -- the astrological tipping point of the Earth's axis where daylight once again starts gaining ground on darkness in the Northern Hemisphere. 

This detail is quite symbolic with my night sky planetary photography offering for y'all this evening. A sight that has not been witnessed here on Earth since the European Middle Ages, and is believed to have been a scene witnessed earlier to one of the greatest moments in human history -- the birth of Jesus Christ.

This evening, my corner of South Carolina was truly blessed with clear skies for a perfect view of the Great "Christmas Star" Conjunction of the giant planets Jupiter and Saturn. My first photo was taken 45 to 50 minutes after sunset.

As y'all can see Jupiter and Saturn are so close together they almost appear to be a single bright star to the naked eye. With my camera's lens, however, you can clearly see Jupiter and Saturn together at less than 0.1 degree apart side by side -- which about the thickness of a dime held at arm's length, according to NASA -- making them appear to be a double planet. 

The word conjunction is used by astronomers to describe meetings of planets and other objects on our sky’s dome. The term great conjunction is used to describe the meeting between the two largest heavenly bodies in our solar system, which happen about every 20 years, or so, when the two outer planets appear close in our night sky from Earth. The last of these took place in the year 2000.

Though the two planets appear spectacularly close together from our perspective here on Earth right now, Jupiter and Saturn are actually a whopping 456 million miles apart from one another, even at this close approach in their planetary orbits. Saturn is nearly twice as far away from us as Jupiter and appears much smaller, in spite of its famous rings. Saturn takes nearly 30 years to go around the sun, while Jupiter takes nearly 12 years. Thus, every 20 years, Jupiter catches up to Saturn as viewed from Earth.

However, what makes the 2020 great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn so special is the fact that its the closest one since Wednesday, July 16, 1623 when they were only 5 arc minutes apart. This took place roughly 13 years after the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei invented the first telescope!

Before this an even closer recorded Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn occurred in the early morning hours of Saturday, March 4, 1226 during the Middle Ages. Tonight's conjunction is the closest meeting of the two planets in Earth's sky dome since that time, with the next really close great conjunction not happening again until the two gas giants stage another exceptionally close show just 60 years from now, in March 2080.  

 

What makes this astronomical event so important is the speculation by some scientists that it was a great conjunction of the two giant planets and the bright star Regulus which occurred in the year 2 BC -- the same year as the estimated birth of this historic Jesus Christ in Bethlehem recorded in the book of Matthew in the Bible.

This great conjunction of the two planets and Regulus are believed to be the possible event that formed the Star of Bethlehem (or Christmas Star) that the Three Wise Men (Magi) in the biblical Nativity story were thought to have seen that inspired them to travel to Judea (modern-day Israel) to find the newborn Jesus.

This is, of course, one of several probable theories regarding the Star of Bethlehem. All the same, considering this year's close great conjunction corresponding with the winter solstice and the beginning of return of longer days, or "light conquering the darkness" if you will, and the symbolism could not be any closer from an astrological and theological point of view.

That's pretty awesome, huh?

My next photo is a close-up of the great conjunction and shows something really cool -- an elongated Saturn from its famous rings, and the four Jovian, or Galilean Moons: Io, Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto.

In 1610, 14 years before the great conjunction of 1623, Italian astronomer Galileo pointed his newly improved telescope to the night sky, discovering the four largest moons of Jupiter. In that same year, Galileo also discovered a strange oval surrounding Saturn, which later observations determined to be its rings. 

Note the oval shape of Saturn in my photo, taken from my trusty Sony DSC-H300 digital camera with 35X Optical Zoom lens at full magnification. It and the large Jovian Moons all appear in my photo probably about the way Galileo first witnessed them when he made his discoveries.

Finally, my last photo of the evening is a beautiful close up of the last First Quarter Moon of the year 2020 during the solstice.

Well folks, I certainly hope y'all enjoyed me photos of this once-in-a-lifetime event as much as I enjoy bringing them to all of y'all. Truly a beautiful astronomical event and one for the ages. Please let me know what you think in the comments section below, and as always have a good evening....and Merry Christmas to y'all!