The great conjunction

November and December are not exactly the best months for sky gazing at night because of the weather. If it is not raining, then it would be the thick clouds that would prevent the moon, planets and stars from being seen, especially from my house. 

Since last month, I had been aware of the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the evening sky. Actually, I was looking forward to it a lot. After all, there were lots of news in social media, especially Instagram. But at the same time, I was prepared to be frustrated because of the weather. 

The earliest I got to see the two planets close together was in the evening of 9 Dec. Jupiter was still positioned well below Saturn, but they were unmistakably there in the western sky. But after that date, it was impossible to see them again. I might have seen Jupiter with the thin crescent moon on the 17th, but I am not completely certain. I had better not post the picture here since I am uncertain.

In the week before 20 Dec, it had been raining rather heavily in the late afternoons. At night, it was impossible to view anything at all. Even the quarter moon, always the brightest object in the sky, was all fuzzy and hazy. 

The 21st of December came by and I was pleasantly surprised when the day turned out dry and warm. With blue skies all around me, I was hopeful that this weather could last into the night. And I was glad that it did. 

At about 8pm, my wife and I ventured out of the house and there they were, hanging low westwards, Jupiter on the left and Saturn on the right, side-by-side and closely together. So this was the Great Conjunction on the night of the Winter Solstice. But I would also call this the Great Conjunction of Tang Chik.

Both pictures above were taken with my Olympus E-PL7 camera with my zoom lens set at the maximum 150mm focal length. The widest aperture setting was f5.6 and the shutter speed was 0.4 seconds. The camera was braced against my gate for stability. No cropping was done to the two images.

As a comparison, this is how the two planets looked to the naked eye, shown here above my neighbour's house: two tiny pinpricks of light side-by-side. How utterly small, how easily they could have been overlooked if you had not been aware of the conjunction.

By the way, despite the good weather on the 22nd and 23rd of December, I was unable to see the two planets again. It was really a chance in a lifetime.