The night of 21 December – the Winter Solstice – is playing host to a rare celestial event wherein two planets of the solar system, Jupiter and Saturn, will be seen closer than ever before to each other from the Earth's perspective – in what is being called the 'great conjunction'.
Such an event took place last in 1623, a little less than 400 years back, but the circumstances are much better this time to witness this 'Christmas Star'.
"The Grand Conjunction refers to the period when two planets have relatively similar positions in relation to Earth... With a small instrument – even a small pair of binoculars – people can see Jupiter's equatorial bands and its main satellites and Saturn's rings," Florent Deleflie of the Paris Observatory was quoted as saying by news agency AFP.
In India, the two planets are expected to be closest in the sky at 11:13 pm.
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