APOD: Great Conjunction: Saturn and... (2020 Dec 15)

[neufer]

But the great Pre-Roman civilisation on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, East of Jerusalem had priests magicians and astrologers, who WOULD have seen the Great Conjunction of their time in the West, as we do, and followed it towards Israel.

Massive movements like Christianity aquire much legend and folklore, but they do have sparks of truth in their origins.

For me, an atheist, I feel that there WAS someone called Jesus, born under a portenteous star, who grew up to be a philosopher and religious leader, who came to an awful end. His teaching on the way to conduct one's life is exemplary, such as respecting the family and giving charity by gifts (thoroughly good Jewish teaching too, of course!) so why not celebrate what we think was his birthday in that way?

• "Portentous star" sounds a lot more astrological than astronomical.

<<The Symphony No. 5 in C minor of Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 1770), Op. 67, was written between 1804 and 1808. In an essay titled "Beethoven's Instrumental Music", published in three installments in December 1813, E.T.A. Hoffmann praised the "indescribably profound, magnificent symphony in C minor":

• How this wonderful composition, in a climax that climbs on and on, leads the listener imperiously forward into the spirit world of the infinite!... No doubt the whole rushes like an ingenious rhapsody past many a man, but the soul of each thoughtful listener is assuredly stirred, deeply and intimately, by a feeling that is none other than that unutterable portentous longing, and until the final chord—indeed, even in the moments that follow it—he will be powerless to step out of that wondrous spirit realm where grief and joy embrace him in the form of sound....

<<Magi (from Latin magus) were priests in Zoroastrianism and the earlier religions of the western Iranians. The earliest known use of the word magi is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius the Great, known as the Behistun Inscription. Old Persian texts, predating the Hellenistic period, refer to a magus as a Zurvanic, and presumably Zoroastrian, priest.

Pervasive throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia until late antiquity and beyond, mágos was influenced by (and eventually displaced) Greek goēs (γόης), the older word for a practitioner of magic, to include astronomy/astrology, alchemy and other forms of esoteric knowledge. This association was in turn the product of the Hellenistic fascination for (Pseudo‑)Zoroaster, who was perceived by the Greeks to be the Chaldean founder of the Magi and inventor of both astrology and magic, a meaning that still survives in the modern-day words "magic" and "magician".

In the Gospel of Matthew, "μάγοι" (MAGOI) from the east do homage to the newborn Jesus, and the transliterated plural "magi" entered English from Latin in this context around 1200 (this particular use is also commonly rendered in English as "kings" and more often in recent times as "wise men"). The singular "magus" appears considerably later, when it was borrowed from Old French in the late 14th century with the meaning magician.

The term only appears twice in Iranian texts from before the 5th century BCE, and only one of these can be dated with precision. This one instance occurs in the trilingual Behistun inscription of Darius the Great, and which can be dated to about 520 BCE. In this trilingual text, certain rebels have magian as an attribute; in the Old Persian portion as maγu- (generally assumed to be a loan word from Median). The meaning of the term in this context is uncertain.>>

[alter-ego]

I plan on shooting images around local noon on the 21st, which for me will put them in the southeastern sky just past their point of being closest (which is slightly before they rise for me).

Although not necessarily a plan changer, the closest separation occurs at positive altitudes for you. But there's an interesting twist for when the closest separation occurs. It involves topocentric circumstances.

That's interesting.

In reality, I'll probably be shooting images all day, and with different equipment. We'll see what I get.

I discovered a calculation error for the topocentric case so I corrected the post. However, the bottom line doesn't change; the conjunction should be visible to you at the time for the geocentric minimum.

[MarkBour]

A tough one, so close to the setting Sun, so close to the horizon. On the other hand, this one is not about planetary surface details.

I plan on shooting images around local noon on the 21st, which for me will put them in the southeastern sky just past their point of being closest (which is slightly before they rise for me).

Both of these objects are plenty bright to be telescopic objects in full daylight. I'll go for wider field astro-landscape type images just after sunset.

I hope you'll share some images with us. I hope you experience very good seeing at the Cloudbait observatory near Guffey, Colorado. Your elevation near 9000 feet should help!

[neufer]

• One of my highlights as a young boy during the 1954 Christmas season was my father driving me down to the (Swedish!?) Zeiss Planetarium at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where they would stage their traditional sky show in which a live astronomer pondered the age-old question of the possible origin of the Star of Bethlehem.

Was the Star of Bethlehem a Star, Comet ... or Miracle?
By Joe Rao December 23, 2011

This image by Charles H. Coles from the cover of "The Sky" in December 1937 depicts the triangle pattern of the planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars as it could have appeared on Feb. 6, B.C. Some astronomers have speculated that this pattern may have been the famed Star of Bethlehem. The skyline of New York, including the R.C.A. (now called the G.E.) Building and the Empire State Building was part of the Hayden Planetarium's man-made sky.

---

<<As a young boy, one of my highlights of the Christmas season was visiting New York's Hayden Planetarium where they would stage their traditional sky show in which astronomers pondered the age-old question of the possible origin of the Star of Bethlehem.

Between 1935 and 1959, Hayden's very first Zeiss projector (three others have been installed since) was run back some 2,000 years in an attempt to reproduce the positions of the planets around the time of the birth of Christ. The entire procedure would take four hours with the planets engaged in an incredible fast-moving dance while the moon flipped around the sky a hundred times a minute!

Ultimately, the projector was brought to a halt on Feb. 25 in the year 6 BC with the planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars forming a triangle low in the western sky.

In those days, a silhouette of the skyline of New York was a permanent fixture around the periphery of the planetarium dome, so the planet trio was depicted not above a Middle East desert, but Midtown Manhattan. The audience was then asked: "Was the star seen by the Wise Men an unusual, eye-catching gathering of naked eye planets, or was that fabled 'sign in the sky' a meteor, comet, nova, or something supernatural?"

In later years, the tedious running-back of the projector was discontinued, mainly to save needless wear and tear on the machinery. In 1960, special auxiliary projectors were designed to depict the planet triangle. And the panorama silhouette of New York skyscrapers was replaced by a series of projectors which could replicate not just the skyline of New York, but scenes from any location on Earth. As such, Hayden audiences could now watch as Jupiter, Saturn and Mars drew near to each other over the landscape of Bethlehem.>>

[Chris Peterson]

A tough one, so close to the setting Sun, so close to the horizon. On the other hand, this one is not about planetary surface details.

I plan on shooting images around local noon on the 21st, which for me will put them in the southeastern sky just past their point of being closest (which is slightly before they rise for me).

Both of these objects are plenty bright to be telescopic objects in full daylight. I'll go for wider field astro-landscape type images just after sunset.

I hope you'll share some images with us. I hope you experience very good seeing at the Cloudbait observatory near Guffey, Colorado. Your elevation near 9000 feet should help!

I put up a couple of early images at viewtopic.php?f=8&t=19131&p=309046#p309046

Actually, the seeing here tends to be pretty bad, with the jet stream normally over us. Great transparency, but unsteady skies. Good for lots of deep sky imaging, not so good for high resolution planetary shots, though.

[MarkBour]

I plan on shooting images around local noon on the 21st, which for me will put them in the southeastern sky just past their point of being closest (which is slightly before they rise for me).

Both of these objects are plenty bright to be telescopic objects in full daylight. I'll go for wider field astro-landscape type images just after sunset.

I hope you'll share some images with us. I hope you experience very good seeing at the Cloudbait observatory near Guffey, Colorado. Your elevation near 9000 feet should help!

I put up a couple of early images at viewtopic.php?f=8&t=19131&p=309046#p309046

Actually, the seeing here tends to be pretty bad, with the jet stream normally over us. Great transparency, but unsteady skies. Good for lots of deep sky imaging, not so good for high resolution planetary shots, though.

Thanks, enjoyed your posted images.

Sorry to hear about the jet stream's annoying effects. I haven't reached the point where I'd notice the effects of turbulence in the atmosphere usually, except when that turbulence is near the ground: Last night we set up in a field to view the conjunction through a scope and possibly even get some photos, but it was so windy (over 40 mph) that the scope wouldn't hold still and everything was shaking around. We would get some decent viewing, but no photos were worth a darn. So, that kind of air turbulence I can notice!

[JohnD]

Huh! Turbulence!? It's been persistently cloudy here ever since I heard of the GC. I saw tht Moon on Monday night, through cloud, that's it.
Cloudbait? Chris should move to here in the NorthWest UK!

Happy Christmas, All!
John