A super-rare celestial event is set to happen on Monday night.
Jupiter and Saturn will be nearly touching each other in the night sky when in reality they remain around 734 million km from each other.
Jon Tupper, Creator of the ‘Fort McMurray Amateur Astronomy Enthusiasts’ group, tells Mix News this will be one of the rarest sightings we could ever see.
“The last time they were this close 1623 but they were very close to the sun so only the folks down by the equator had a chance of looking at that.”
The RMWB is at a slight disadvantage being so far north, however, there’s still a small window where people should be able to see the planets with the naked eye.
For those with binoculars or a telescope, you’ll be able to see some great detail.
“Saturn will almost look like an oval because the rings around it kind of make it form an elongated shape, while Jupiter will look like the dot of a pinhead, and if you look really carefully you’ll see little tiny pinpricks of light almost forming a straight line and those would be the moons of Jupiter,” added Tupper.
He adds the best time to view the planets will be between 4:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. They will also be visible over the coming days but won’t be as close together.
The planets can be found by looking just south of southwest.
ICYMI: On this edition of Fort McMurray Matters, we chat with the Creator of the ‘Fort McMurray Amateur Astronomy Enthusiasts’ group about a super-rare celestial event #ymm #rmwb https://t.co/GzePzTK19p
— MIX 103.7 News (@Mix1037FMNews) December 21, 2020
