APOD: 2020 December 8 - Great Conjunction over Sicilian Lighthouse

Good morning, Rallypoint. Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is titled "Great Conjunction over Sicilian Lighthouse." As we've been talking about for several weeks now, a great conjunction is when the planets Jupiter and Saturn appear closest together in the sky. Conjunctions occur every 19.6 years, on average, when Jupiter 'overtakes' Saturn in the sky due to the combined effect of Jupiter's approximately 11.9-year orbital period and Saturn's 29.5-year orbital period. The next great conjunction will occur in just 13 days.

The setup for this pending event was captured late last month over the Cape Murro di Porco Lighthouse in Sicily. Here you see (from left to right) the Moon, Saturn, and Jupiter. You can currently see them in the southwest shortly after sunset. On December 21st, the planets will appear closer together than they have since 1623. They will be so close that the Moon could occult (cover) both of them.