Tomorrow is the greatest conjunction … a rare astronomical phenomenon that has been taking place in the sky of Egypt for 397 years

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The sky of Egypt and the Arab world is witnessing after sunset tomorrow evening Monday December 21, 2020 and the beginning of the night, coinciding with the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere, a rare conjunction between the planets of Jupiter and Saturn, as they will be at the closest apparent distance and will be separated by only 0.1 degrees, which is the closest visible conjunction between the two planets in the sky Night since 1623 AD, that is, about 397 years ago.

Citizens will be able to see the two planets with the naked eye as if the merging of two “stars” – bright Jupiter (2.0 -) with faint Saturn (+0.7), in one star brighter and looking extending towards the north in an amazing view that is seen without the need to use any special monitoring equipment.

The conjunction occurs when the planets appear close to each other in the sky from our perspective on Earth, and this conjunction in particular is described as the “great coupling” because it is one of the rarest cases of conjugation between the planets visible to the naked eye and this phenomenon has no effect on the globe.

The reports of astronomical observatories indicate that the reason for the rare occurrence of the “Great Coupling” is due to the distance between Jupiter and Saturn as a result of their slow movement across the sky as it takes 11 years and 29 years respectively to orbit around the sun, in addition to that its orbits do not fall exactly in the same plane and usually the planet passes Above or below each other in the sky, but it happens that the two planets meet and produce a great coupling at a rate of once every 20 years.

The planet Saturn cuts about 12 degrees every year from its orbit around the sun, while Jupiter cuts about 30 degrees, so in one year Jupiter closes the gap between it and Saturn by about 18 degrees, and above within 20 years Jupiter completes 360 degrees compared to Saturn, so Jupiter meets Saturn and they share roughly The same celestial coordinates once every 20 years.

In addition, it must be known that the great conjunctions are not the same. Sometimes the “great conjunction” occurs when the planets are so close to the sun that they cannot be observed, as happened in the year 1623 AD.

The “Great Conjunction” can be observed anywhere on the Earth by looking at the southwest horizon for a few hours after sunset. Because of the close distance between them, they can be seen together through binoculars and even within the field of view of the telescope. You see the rings of Saturn, the belts of Jupiter’s clouds, and many of their large moons together as well. .

It is worth noting that day after day, observing Jupiter and Saturn will become difficult, especially at the end of this December compared to the past months, because they are approaching the light of the twilight in preparation for their transfer to the dawn sky at the beginning of the year 2021 and after that they spend another whole year near each other on the dome of the sky, but not at the same distance of conjunction December 22, 2020.