"Christmas Star"

The approaching 'great conjunction' of Jupiter and Saturn, when the two planets appear close together, occurs tomorrow, though, in fact, they are about 450 million miles apart. When their orbits fully converge (from Earth's perspective) they should appear as one extra bright star, known as the 'Christmas Star'. I had a go at photographing them tonight as cloud is forecast for tomorrow, though I live in hope!

If you want to look for them (they'll still appear close for the next few days), look towards the south-west, to the right of the crescent moon, but a little lower in the sky, at about 40 minutes after sunset.

This particular convergence hasn't happened since around 1226, but they will appear fairly close again in 2040 (for any of us still around). My knowledge of astronomy is slight indeed, but I do enjoy looking at stars and planets, and enjoying our fragile but wondrous place in the universe.

With many thanks to my sister for alerting me to this rare event. Fingers crossed for tomorrow evening!