Don’t miss Jupiter, Saturn and the moon forming a triangle in the sky tonight

He is mindful of the night sky to offer so many beautiful views with so many people stuck at the house. Of Leonid meteor shower at Halloween blue moon, sky watchers were recently spoiled. And here’s another plus: Go out Thursday night to see the moon, Saturn, and Jupiter forming a neat triangle. The crescent moon will be visible in the southwest as soon as the sky darkens, but the other two will appear a little later. Jupiter is expected to make an appearance after sunset and Saturn a little later.

“The best time to observe is around 30 minutes after the local sunset for around two hours, while the moon and planets are high enough in the sky to be clearly visible,” says Jeffrey Hunt, astronomy teacher and former director of the planetarium. He wrote about the view on his site, When the Curves Line Up.

But if you miss that exact moment, it’s still worth stepping out. Hunt says the views will still be good until about four and a half hours after your local sunset. Saturn appears a bit later because it is darker than Jupiter, he says, and brighter stars appear in the sky after sunset, while darker stars appear later.

And you don’t need any special equipment. Hunt says, “A binocular or a small telescope, such as a birding telescope, will show the lunar craters (and) the moons of Jupiter. If the binoculars are kept stable, some of Jupiter’s larger moons are visible. telescope will show a clue that Saturn has rings. “

If you miss Thursday night’s show, expect more sky views in December. Hunt notes that there is another reunification of the moon and the Jupiter-Saturn pair on December 16, when the planets are closer together.

It’s just five days before a highly anticipated event dubbed The Great Conjunction, which will occur on December 21. No, no Conjunction Junction – Hunt explains that when the moon, or a planet, has the same celestial longitude as another celestial object. , we call it a conjunction. Jupiter passes Saturn in a conjunction every 19.6 years, so the event is already rare, but the December 21 event will be the closest conjunction of the two since 1623.