December 21 was a special and unique day, and it’s because the Great Conjunction occurred. It is a planetary event that hasn’t happened in centuries. We are going to talk about what the Great Conjunction is, why it’s so special, why it happens, and how you can see it.

A great conjunction is a celestial event where Jupiter and Saturn intersect from Earth’s point of view, to make a very visible “mega-planet.” They will be .1 degree apart, and they will stay in the Southwest Sky.

The Great Conjunction is really special because it doesn’t happen very often, usually every 20 years, and it happens randomly, luckily on Winter Solstice this year. The last Great Conjunction occurred in 2000, but the last time a Great Conjunction this close happened was 400 years ago, and an observable conjunction this close was 800 years ago in 1229. This event has been dubbed as “The Bethelem Star”, or the Christmas Star because, in Christian Scriptures and Lore, a star was seen in Bethelem when Jesus was born.

It’s fascinating because Jupiter makes an orbit every 12 years, and Saturn makes an orbit every 29.5 years. When combining those two key numbers and accounting for other factors, like the angle of Earth, we get 19.725 years, which rounds to 20 years.

I hope you enjoyed this blog as much as I loved making it, and have fun reaching the stars!