The Shape of Things to Come – Jupiter and Saturn

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Starlog September 24th, 2019, 07:50 p.m. local time

This is a very exciting post, at least for me.  It’s the first time on my blog that I have a picture of Jupiter and Saturn together!

I had to do some traveling today, and as I disembarked from a late train, I looked to the South to see a clear (albeit light polluted) sky an hour past Sunset.  I knew immediately what I wanted to find: our Solar System’s fifth and sixth planets!

I haven’t been tracking either for the last few weeks, so I was worried Jupiter was already too far towards the horizon by now.  But I was pleasantly surprised to find it still firmly in the Southwest.  And with Saturn almost due South, I grabbed my phone from its sturdy belt pouch, and began taking pictures of the night sky.

We’re going to be talking about Jupiter and Saturn as they approach each other (as seen from Earth) over the next year.  For now, though, I will only note that Saturn is currently residing by the constellation Sagittarius (again, as seen from Earth).  Scott’s Sky Watch! recently posted a nice drawing showing essentially the above image (minus the Moon, which is now a Waning Crescent rising after midnight).  Plus, it shows the outline of Sagittarius.  Go check it out!

For the sake of the explicit, here is the picture again, with the planets labeled: