MYNORTHWEST NEWS

Despite Puget Sound draped in clouds, rare ‘Great Conjunction’ was still visible across the globe

Dec 22, 2020, 7:14 AM

A celestial event known as the “Great Conjunction” comes around once every few hundred years, where Jupiter and Saturn converge, appearing to form a single point in the sky. The world was treated to that sight on Monday night.

The Puget Sound region was unfortunately unable to see rare planetary alignment, finding itself draped in cloud cover brought on by heavy rain and light snow throughout the day and well into the night.

But it was visible in clearer night skies from Los Angeles to the United Kingdom, giving us plenty of stellar photos to see the conjunction after the fact.

NASA says the planets regularly appear to pass each other in the Solar System, with their alignment happening once every 20 years. However, this year was special because they haven’t passed this close to each other since the early 1600s. Furthermore, it had been about 800 years since the alignment occurred at night, allowing almost everyone on earth to witness the event.

You can check out photos from across the globe in the above photo gallery.

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Despite Puget Sound draped in clouds, rare ‘Great Conjunction’ was still visible across the globe