Astronomy Club of the Indian Institute of Information Technology Design and Manufacturing (IIITDM), one of the active such clubs will be holding a special session to watch the the “Conjunction” of Jupiter and Saturn on Monday evening through a special telescope the institute possesses.
The Head of Department of Sciences at IIITDM here told The Hindu that its student members had been doing a lot of research on such celestial events and making the best use of resources at the library and the astronomical telescope. One of the leading members of the Astronomy Club, Deepika Lahari, who is pursuing computer science, second year, explains that the largest among the eight planets in the solar family is the red-spotted Jupiter and the second-largest is the ringed-planet Saturn. She has prepared a leaflet based on her research for her club members.
While Jupiter takes 12 years to go around the sun, Saturn takes about 30 years. Jupiter catches up with Saturn every 20 years when seen from the Earth. The two planets come in a single line and we can see them as a single point in the sky. This kind of Jupiter and Saturn conjunction happens once every 20 years and we can observe this year on the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year on December 21.
But, there is something special about this year’s conjunction as these giant planets will come closest to each other after 1623, after nearly 4 centuries. If weather permits, they will be clearly visible in the night sky and previously this was observed in 1226, about 800 years ago.
Jupiter and Saturn were being observed to be at an angle of 3 degrees from mid-November. Over the last one month, they have moved 3o towards each other.
On Monday, they would be positioned only at an angle of 0.1 degree, the closest ever, explained Mr. D. Murali. "During the conjunction, both Jupiter and Saturn can be seen shining brightly in the southwestern sky.
“Anyone can watch this conjunction with their naked eye or using a pair of binoculars. To watch the celestial event people should find a suitable open place like a park or playground with an unobstructed view of the sky; after the sunset, in about an hour one can see Jupiter as a bright star in the southwest direction along with Saturn which is faintly brighter than Jupiter.”
With a pair of binoculars, one can see Jupiter’s moons Lo, Europa, and Callisto also. The next time we can see such conjunctions on October 31, 2040; April 7, 2060; March 15, 2080, and September 18, 2100. But among these, the next closest conjunction would again appear on March 15, 2080, almost 60 years from now.
