The Winter Solstice, tonight, marks the shortest day and longest night of the year.

In 2020, it also marks the “Great Conjunction”, an event during which the two largest planets in our solar system – Jupiter and Saturn – will nearly overlap to form a "double planet."

How rare is this occurrence? The last time a close conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn was seen by humans was 1226.

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Monday COVID-19 US News

18 Million Confirmed Cases

It seems like every 4 to 5 days now the USA adds another 1 Million cases of coronavirus. No wonder people have become numb to “numbers… The numbers defy imagination.

“The United States has reported at least 18,035,209 cases of coronavirus, including at least 319,364 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally. On Monday, Johns Hopkins reported 190,519 new cases and 1,696 additional deaths.”

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Because our local news had said we wouldn’t be able to see this once in a lifetime conjunction of the planets - unless we had a clear view of the horizon - I almost didn’t even bother to even try to look for the planets in the evening sky. There are very few places that I know of locally that have a clear view of the horizon without trees or other obstacles.

But the lure of such a historical event (and a relatively clear sky) changed my mind at the very last moment. Without any previous planning, I randomly grabbed the camera body that I had been using earlier in the day plus a medium telephoto lens; just in case we did actually see something. My husband & I then impulsively jumped in the car just after sunset and went looking for a clear view of the SW sky. To my delight, I actually spotted the two conjoined planets. They looked like just one star to the naked eye. I think my husband was a bit disappointed in the display, but then, he has previously said that watching a Lunar Eclipse is kind of like “watching paint dry.” He’s not really into this kind of thing & only went along to be with me.

My photos of the conjunction aren’t the greatest. Still, I was lucky to have had the experience of shooting them. The above image was taken with my new mirrorless Canon EOS R6 and a lens I haven’t used on this body before. No tripod. I used a pillow we had in the car as a beanbag to steady the camera. A lot of trial and error with no planning.

The above photo has a lot of noise. Not really knowing how to handle what I shot, I have done very little post processing. Instead, I just went with the JPG image; rather than the RAW one also shot. My camera settings also were all funky because the new camera doesn’t have lighted controls like my pro bodies. And I don’t yet know this camera by touch to make changes in the dark.

I should have shot on manual as I usually do with astronomy images. But on this occasion, I let the camera do more of the work. I see some other “stars” in my above photo, but I can’t identify what is what other than Jupiter on the left and Saturn on the right of the two largest stars close together. I think Jupiter moons can also be seen. The "starburst flare" of Jupiter is a how the camera handled the scene.

Photographing the planets was a "safe", socially isolated event.