It will be all eyes to the skies on Monday evening as Scots try to get a glimpse of a rare encounter between the two largest planets in our Solar System.
A planetary conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn is set to be visible at sunset, and tomorrow's event will be the closest these two planets have been seen in the sky since 1226.
The phenomenon occurs when "two or more planets appear very close to each other in the sky despite being separated by millions of miles".
Astronomers at Coats Observatory in Paisley are hoping to live stream the event on their Facebook page, owing to decent weather conditions.
They say that the planets are both bright enough to be seen without any optical aid, and will appear so close together that they will be visible at the same time in the eyepiece of a telescope or binoculars.
A statement from the observatory reads: "Jupiter and Saturn are both visible low in the southwest at sunset and have been appearing to get closer together for the past few weeks - the attached image was taken last Saturday night, with Jupiter the bright one lower right with three of its moons visible and Saturn the elongated blob to the upper left (the camera is not quite good enough to make out the rings!).
"Both are bright enough to be seen without the need for any optical aid. On Monday night both planets will appear so close together that they will be visible at the same time in the eyepiece of a telescope or binoculars."
If the sky is clear, the observatory will live stream the event on their Facebook page from 4pm.
They say skygazers will have to be quick, as the planets will have set below the horizon by 5:30pm.
And the conjunction will also coincide with another event in our skies - the Ursid meteor shower is expected to peak some time during the night of December 21 and will be visible until the early morning of December 22.
This celestial display is associated with the comet 8P/Tuttle, also known as Comet Tuttle, which orbits the Sun once every 13 years.
The shooting stars appear to radiate from near the Beta Ursae Minoris (Kochab) in the constellation Ursa Minor.
The Ursid meteor shower is usually sparse, producing around five meteors per hour at its peak.
The peak coincides with a first quarter Moon, so weather permitting, shooting stars will still be visible in the night sky.
According to Royal Observatory Greenwich, the meteor shower also occurs around the time of the winter solstice, when there will be long hours of darkness for stargazing.
The meteors, mostly no bigger than a grain of sand, burn up as they hit the atmosphere at 36 miles per second to produce a shooting stream of light in the sky.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel